Chapter 12
Jimmy –> James
Jimmy –> James
Pick a four-leaf clover.
Make a wish upon a star.
Fight for individuality.
Find out who you are.
These years of life are precious.
Fill them all with joy.
For one day you’ll turn around
And no longer be a boy.
Pressure can break you
Or help force you to see
That now you are the man
You used to hope you’d be.
So many of my boys in Panama were lost inside a male-dominated society. They were made small by the sheer weight of what they believed manhood was supposed to be.
I wrote the poem Jimmy–>James for my brother on his fourteenth birthday.
For reasons inside his own mind I could never fully understand, they later found the poem folded inside his wallet, stained with his blood. I knew one day he would have to face those reasons.
He chose certainty instead.
Talking helps.
If you ever find yourself trapped inside your own thoughts, find someone and talk. If they are not the right someone, find someone else.
Puke honesty.
Start from the ground floor up and do not stop talking until you have talked yourself back into the reasons you still want to live.
Sometimes life takes persistence.