THERE ARE NO NO-BRAINERS

You always have to think. That's what I learned yesterday. As a rule, you can't get away with assumption - that is - taking for granted that others understand you. Most of the time, people don't understand one another. And there's a good chance that it's because they don't want to understand one another. I came to this conclusion yesterday at Sushi. Yes I eat Sushi. I realize it's 2013 and everybody is all eclectic but even saying I eat Sushi requires courage. I mean...I'm very black, whatever that means, and originally from South Central Los Angeles, home of Church's Chicken and Tam's #5. Guys like me aren't your usual candidates for cuisine involving raw seafood. But I ruminated over crunchy rolls yesterday with a co-worker and then I received this text from a young guy I hang out with some time. He wanted to chat about something vital to the next several months of his life and he was like, "Where you at?" and I was like, "I'm over here with these chopsticks. What you wanna do youngblood?" "I'm comin' through," he responded.

So, lunch with one friend turned into lunch with two friends. But one of the friends (the younger one) needed to talk serious. So we did. It was a no-brainer too...to me. The relationship I had with this young man required my sitting, my listening, maybe even my input. And it felt natural as if this is why I'm on the planet. Can you imagine? Put on the planet to talk to people, to listen, to counsel? But you can never assume that spending time in this way on a Monday afternoon is valued by others. If someone asked me what I did yesterday afternoon, would I have been proud? Would I have been embarrassed because this is not deemed "work" in our society? Would I have spun the truth a little? It's a no-brainer that I did what needed to be done right? Wrong! What is right though is that I took time to examine the situation with a young brotha. He needed discourse, the kind that can impact life-changing decisions. I guess the moral goes a little something like..."DO THE RIGHT THING, even it's not a no-brainer to the world around you."