Two Men (abridged)

Two black men are adjoined lying sole to sole. And we ask ourselves how are they connected? The invisible hand picks them both up by the feet. They remain in a straight line, adjacent to one another. Using his pointer finger and his thumb, the invisible hand turns them perpendicular to the Earth's surface so that the man on the bottom is now standing on his head and the man on top is standing atop the upside down man's feet.

We turn out the lights and illuminate their bodies. Something strange occurs. Like sand rushing from one side of the hourglass to the other, we can see life rush from the man on top to the man on the bottom. It is an incredible sight to behold. Life ekes at times; ebbs and flows at others, but for the most part, there remains a steady stream of palpability racing through the soles of their feet.

21 years later, this phase of the experiment concludes. There is no immediately known reason why these men are adjoined or inextricably intertwined; they have formed an atypical bond reminiscent of organisms centuries past. You’d have to trace the history of black man back to Africa prior to the Diaspora to find a bond this strong. It is tough, it is battled tested, it has lasted the years.

A closer look into their DNA reveals the bond. It turns out that the man on the bottom is the man on the top's son. While this may just be a guess, a study was conducted to understand just why this father and son were connected in such a way. You see, the father needed to stay atop his son to teach him reverence for his elders. They had to be connected at the soles, to prove they must walk this road called life together. It was important for the son to be upside down, in order to learn how to exist even when life is topsy-turvy. It was important that they shared this experience together as father and son. Bonded. 21 years.

Phase 2 begins. The invisible hand, with its pointer finger and thumb, once again grabs them by the soles of their feet and turns them 180 degrees. The lights were once again flipped off and the father and son's bodies, once again illuminated. The results were astounding. Life flowed faster and was more plentiful from the son, in to the father. It was incredible because more life flowed than it appeared was humanly possible for the father to hold. Yet the son never slowed his flowing and the father never quit his accepting. You see, 21 years later, the son was, in fact, giving back to the father all that the father had given him, but tenfold.

Phase 2 of this experiment went on for 40 years. All the while, the son never stopped flowing. As the experiment wore on, the father, though tired and weary from having to be cropped up on his head and neck, never tired from having his son sit atop his legacy as a man; his legacy as a black man. Though the signs of fatigue were strong, the spirit remained very strong. Sole to sole, they would continue this journey together until the very end.

The moral of the story?

Fathers, be there for your children. Muddy roads are still roads and turbulent seas are still seas. When the road is long but steady and the sea is wide but calm, we seem to know how to maintain. When the times get rough, you should especially be there to teach your kids how to survive, navigate and surmount those difficult terrains. A child, no matter the age from 10 years old to 40 years old will always grow to appreciate the advantages you have given them and the life lessons you have taught them. Your labors, once harvested, will show and equip them to manage the same. I don't know this firsthand, but I have a hunch this would be true. And I plan on proving this theory when I have children of my own.