Voulez Vous
Monday, June 11 : 1:29 AM : 0 comments :
Tony Parker, as a younger player, was tasked with leading a championship contender and his doubters said that he couldn't do it. Not because he didn't have the skills but because he just couldn't...yet.Have you seen him play recently? He's amazing. Tear drops, off-speed dribbles, crossovers, through the leg passes, open jumpers, crisp passes, the tear drops! He's annihilating the competition and proving to be unstoppable as a mature player. All the talk of trading him for Jason Kidd a few years ago? Well, who would you rather have now? An aging (but still great) Jason Kidd? Or a still up-and-coming Tony Parker, three time -- soon to be four -- world champion?
The promise of potential demands patience.
I think that when people look at anyone a half-generation (or more) younger than them, they see their raw skills but they also see the roadblocks of inexperience and immaturity. You can't force someone to learn things. You can't force someone to take your word as bond. Fathers try to do it with their sons but it's rarely possible to force feed the young with the wisdom of the old. People grow at their own pace and the only thing to do is to give them room, and a safe place, to do it in.
Not to say that I'm wiser or more mature than any of my peers (far from it), but in a way, I've wanted people to grow, to get on that level. This recent trip to New York, I saw so many friends in a new light. A more beautiful light, as people are starting to grow into themselves, to fulfill their personal potential, and to actively and naturally change their auras. It's like in re-connecting with everyone, I feel like what I'm re-connecting with is an "evolved" version of them. That's age isn't it? You go away for three years and people have grown.
Life has happened since the last time I visited Manhattan, changes are bound to occur. In the case of the people I know there, it's been all positive, all of it.
Hell, for myself, I feel like I'm finally growing (up), by leaps and bounds, definitely a little bit late, but I'm finally doing it. I'm starting to get comfortable with the idea of myself. I always was to an extent but that was a false sense of security. Like being comfortable at the little kid table but unable and unwilling to step up to the adult table. Well, I'd like to move up in weight class now, I want to play with the big boys.
I want to earn the respect of others -- not just to get it. I want to have The Big Fundamental look upon me as an equal, as someone he/she can really count on and appreciate. I'm indescribably, and perhaps undeservedly, happy because I went to New York to unburden myself and instead I found that there was no burden but rather people who had already lifted the weight off my shoulders. And in turn, I hope to be able to support them. To support everybody really. And if that's not the most megalomaniac thing I could say right now, I don't know what is.
