Blueprint for Success

I go back to the old neighborhood from time to time because the lessons are endless. This time the ground spoke in volumes. The ghettos of the world are the breading ground for the leaders of the world. Nothing stirs hunger more than starvation. Nothing pulls out innovation to the degree of lack. No other form of education can compare to the wisdom of a mother. I used to complain for not having a blueprint. I now understand that I had to better learn to articulate how I read the one provided. I like several of my peers escaping the clutches of government assistance, pipe dreams, and poor managed public education learned from the lives of those around us. You learn from the drunk on the corner. In my case, you learn from the Vato covered in tattoos telling you to stay in school. You immediately start your checklist of what not to do in order to not turn out like that woman with the skirt too short on telephone road. You are trying to read the lines and decipher where your foundation is going to come from. Assess the gains and losses of entities that have been established before your own. Learn from their pitfalls in order to avoid the same downturns. You read the lines on your mother's face as she toils about this, that, and the other. You conclude that she wants more money so, you begin planning how to get more money. You go back outside and pan the schematics available. You see the pastor who drives a nice car and has a very close relationship with God. You see the drug dealer. He has a gold watch and a nice car but, disappears every few months. You see the dope house that is surrounded by police only feet from your apartment. You see the teachers at school who drive nice cars but, you don't like school now. You see family members who your parents borrow money from at times. Does that mean they are rich? You see the people on television and, so it must be that I have to be on television to make the stress in my Mother's face disappear. I did have a blueprint. I had a praying Mother who taught me how to pray and fear God. I had a studying brother who taught me how to navigate the academic world. I had an absentee father who taught me how to fill all voids with Christ. I like Noah have a vision. I am okay that no one has ever built it before because it is my vision. I am fine with the fact that everyone is laughing at me. I don't mind so much the thinning of the air is causing my circle to decrease. I have lives depending on me. I have an obligation to the generations before me to make sure that I am in someone's ghetto providing a template for them to hold themselves up to in the future. Thank you for joining me in my moment of revelation. I have to get back to building now, the rain is coming!