you are (are not) your history

Straight Outta Compton
was an opportunity for me
to reflect on my identity,
which includes:
– being a huge NWA fan as a teen
– now being 40
– feeling the need to purchase
two cans of a particular
brand of malt liquor
to view the movie with,
cuz, you know, 8-ball
– only drinking one of
those cans during the movie

film-wise, i felt the flick
was solid as the streets

did it market to me?
indeed.
did it feel like a bit of
revisionist history
produced by
Dre/Cube?
yes.
did i still love it
with the pure nostalgia
of a
malt-liquor-swilling
mid lifer?
f’sho.

what struck me though
is that,
like the characters of
Straight Outta Compton,
we’re *all,*
in the end,
incongruent-ish blends
of our past
(our memories
and regrets
and histories)
and our future
(our hope
and growth
and potential)

we’re *all,*
in the end,
incongruent-ish blends
of things still
holding us back,
and things we’re
growing away from –
things
we were
and things
we’re becoming
and things
we might become

you can take the rapper
out the streets,
but you can’t take the
streets out the rapper,
until,
eventually,
you do.
until,
actually,
both happen
all the time.

i bought two cans.
i drank one.

of course,
ultimately,
“with man
this is impossible,
but with God
anything is possible”

so says that
ancient change agent –
Him in whom
meets history
and future
so fantastically,
both globally for all,
and individually,
for each

if we’ll have Him