I've come to talk to you again
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left it's seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision, that was planted in my brain,
Still remains... Within the Sound of Silence....
You may recall the opening words of this song, The Sound of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel as the Pool song in the movie, Old School, when Frank the Tank was shot with the tranquilizer dart and fell into the pool.
The opening few notes of this song are some of the most recognizable sounds in music history.
I remember this song because I was reading an old article written about me playing a game back during the Kentucky State Tournament about 13 years ago. The writer, Jim Pickens, who is a long time writer of the Messenger-Inquirer, the paper in my hometown, wrote a creative piece about a performance that put me on the map and allowed me to eventually capture my state's Mr. Basketball award.
A reporter asked the opposing coach of the team that just beat us by two points on a last second shot in Overtime(they went on to win the entire thing blowing everyone else out) to name a better guard he played against than myself. Mr Pickens then wrote that the coach seemed to struggle in doing so and began to pull a SIMON and GARFUNKEL.
I remember asking my father while reading the article, "Who are they and what does that mean?" It was then that he clued me into the duo who had written a song by the same name as the title of this entry. I remember thinking, well, I guess that's pretty cool...but I was 17 at the time... I was gone off the FUGEES.
My pops, who was a lover of all music, had the old school record of the song and played it for me to hear the lyrics. As a teenager, who was just beginning to scratch the surface and still lacing up the shoes that would lead me on the journey into my adult live, this song confused the heck outta me. I initially thought it made no sense.. I would think to myself, Sound of Silence?? What the Hell? Silence isn't a sound, it's nothing. I wonder if they were on Acid? Maybe a bunch of the Stickiest of the Icky?
Funny, while taking a shower this morning, this song returned to me in my mind. As I stood in my bathroom, alone, with the water running down my back, I began to softly cry... I'm not afraid to admit that. Being a man, if I could not cry, then I would began to wonder about myself. It is even written, "Jesus Wept." I am not ashamed of being an emotional person. I dont do it alot and often when I do, it's when I am alone because usually, that's when I'm slowed down and all that is around is "the sound of silence."
When I reflect over my life, I often look at it as I was coached to look at my performance on the basketball court... Where did I screw up? Why did I screw up? How should I have handled it, and how will I handle it from this point on? I was told never to breathe... Keep my head down and push forward, for perfection. To play, The perfect game. At times, I have been close. There were games where I did not miss a shot for the entire game nor did I miss a FT. Actually, I've done that twice, both in college..
In both games however, I had at least 1 turnover in each. A play where I made a choice or decision and the outcome was postive for my opponent and not for my team. Coaching basketball, I see the game, now, from a different point of view. It's slower for me. It was always slow for me.. since a young age. It was one of the biggest advantages I had growing up and why I became so good so fast. One thing though, that is a constant, especially playing the Point Guard, like I did, is turnovers.
They are a part of the game. They are bound to happen. You will think you see the right way to do something and when you try to do it, you soon find out that what you thought you saw, wasn't really there.
It could be in anything... Your job, your relationships, how you raise your kids, who you decide to let into your heart, who you decide to keep out.... In all areas of your life.. You will at sometime, turn it over.
Some are costly... Very costly. I've had a few that have caused me a lot of pain and strife in my days of adulthood. Turnovers where I knew there was no opening and the defenders were already on both sides of the lane closing it off and yet I still tried to force the ball where it wouldn't fit.
Going back to the song that I wrote at the start of this entry.... That opening stanza basically seems as it was written for me.
My "Free Your Mind" tattoo, which in the beginning was to be a statement to others, ironically came back to being a loud, screaming statement to myself.
If I do not do as the tattoo states, I stagnate my own personal growth as an individual. That is always where my own personal battle is... In my mind. I'm sure many of you have that same problem. One of control. Of thinking that you can control everything if you plan well enough. If you prepare wisely, there will be no pitfalls. Or if you don't allow yourself to feel anything, for anyone, on more than a surface level, you can never be hurt.
Another tattoo, that is on the other side of my body, that reads, "LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND, with the Chinese symbol for "The Past", also comes to my mind now. While I agree with the premise of the tat, Leaving your past behind you... I do believe at times, you have to go back and look and observe what you've did, what you've come through and what you've learned from it so that you do not fall asleep with the "BEAT" of your life on repeat, and re-live your mistakes on a repetitive loop when life seems to greet thee...
Unfortunately, in my case, there is no Doc Brown... I am not Marty McFly, I do not have a Delorean that could change the Space Time Continuum if I hit 88 mph. Neither is there a Samuel Beckett to step into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanish... Striving to put right where once went wrong.
The reflection in the mirror, just now, showed an unshaven man... Shirtless and somewhat fatigued. He looks at himself and sees the dreams that have been deferred from his own mistakes and his own miscues. Visions of what he believed he should have been and could have been by now, but occasionally it seems as if those seeds have been over-watered.
Within the silence of the keystrokes that I hear, words that have been spoken throughout my lifetime come to my forefront..
"Be Quick, but don't hurry." "Believe in who you are and why you were made" "Look before you leap." "Be wise a a serpent but harmless as a dove." "Hold your follow through." "Do more for others, not because you can, but because you should." But one of them recently has rang out louder than any other phrase I can recite...
"I have seen the enemy, and he, is me."
I've looked in the mirror more the last 2-3 days at myself, more than probably any other time in my life. With no other intention other than to find out when the reflection looking back at me would stop keeping me from reaching my full potential.
My turnovers, have got me where I am on the scoreboard of my life... and it's closer than it should be.. Sure, I've made some tough shots... pulled off some clutch passes and played some good defense(Hey, I played defense after HS for all my old teammates reading this).. But none of that matters, unless I win.
My opponent has the ball, and seems to be stalling. Wasting time trying to run out the clock, but I can not allow that to happen... I need the ball back, but I have to change my strategy because the reflection knows my methods.. It knows my fears, and places and points of weakness inside me. He mimics each movement with a counter move of his own. He's scouted me far too well.
He knows what I want. He knows I need the ball back to try to score.. And he's patient. I cannot be over anxious and overzealous in my attempt to retrieve what I have lost through my own actions. Time for a new approach. Much more cautious, much more astute. More simplistic.
It is in the silence, that I fully understand that there is no perfect game for me to play, but rather just to play... to keep going until the clock runs out and the game is over and someone up there turns out the lights in my Gymnasium.
This is Brandon, creator and CEO of Middlefinger, Inc... Looking you in your eye and asking,
"What does your silence say to you?"
