"Ties"

As a 25-year-old black man in current popular culture, I seem to have more ties than the average person in my position would. You see, my father taught me about ties when I was still a boy, so that when I became a man and started assuming ties of my own, I would already know how valuable they are and also how to handle them. Admittedly, as my life progressed through my teens on up through my early 20’s, I lost track of a few, and sadly, some of them were my most valuable ties that were given to me by my friends and family. Others that I kept up with might as well have vanished along with the others due to the way I openly disrespected and mistreated them.

Thankfully though, my father never gave up on me, and to this day, I can count on him for a quality tie, as well as any type of advice on them at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, many of my peers don’t share that same luxury. I use the word “luxury” warily, because although I find that support system almost necessary, virtually every black male public figure that my generation celebrates achieved financial success without it. However, my father has always been a surrogate father of sorts to others, whether it was kinda/sorta/maybe/shouldabeen coaching my youth league teams or tutoring “underprivileged” youth. And as I’m sure you’ve guessed, when he wasn’t giving dribbling drills or helping breakdown algebra problems, he always made sure to have some time to talk about whatever “ty” was on a kid’s mind at the time.

Now, I’m fully aware most people reading this think I just made a typo, when in reality, not a single line of this has a single thing to do with neckwear. The “ties” I’m referring to constantly are mainly responsibili “ties” and opportuni “ties.” Obviously, difficul ”ties” and other assorted “ties” come into play as well, but it’s the lack of guidance when it comes to those first two that is chewing up our youth. So instead of complaining about the monstrosi “ties” committed by the youth that lead to fatali “ties” of the youth, maybe if we took the time to examine the various adversi “ties” they face on a daily basis we would all be better off and more unified for it.

So, this is a dedication to my pops, and the many, many unsung people like him in our communities. Men. Men that are trying their hardest to “tie” the loose ends of the vast generation gap that runs rampant in our communities. Your work does NOT go unnoticed, and serves to further inspire other young people like myself to become a man, and to continue to teach the Windsor knot to the many generations that lay ahead of us.

I love you pop.