Letters to self – when time traveling – Shun P. Writes… dot com

That human duality.

As younger incarnations of ourselves

looked forward wistfully –

our present incarnations look back

with the equal pull of nostalgia.

What would ourselves say – to self?

Would we lie; obfuscate the truth; would we be vulnerable or would we spew the unvarnished truth?

As for me.

I’m inclined to think that I’d need to be be raw and forthcoming – because this version of me was susceptible to information going into one ear and out of the other.

I’d pull up a chair, furrow the brow and say.

screenshot_20190601-215000_instagram6814160842556054396.jpg — Present Shun P versus 10 year old Shun P.

To Shun P. age 10.

I encourage you to remember the laughter of that grade school teacher who laughed at your aspiration to be a “newspaper writer” and how she told you that “you were a “hoodlum in training at best.”

Feel that into your bone marrow, okay?

Does it bite, are you shuddering?

Good.

Listen to me.

Little Black Boy – your parents are right, you are consequential.

Your Aunties, Uncles, Grandparents and those stories about their triumph are more than the ramblings of old folks.

Seriously… You do stand on the shoulders of Giants.

Please understand.

There will be more like that teacher – but your hue is not a detriment.

Cry if you need to…

But, you need to know –

that you’ve got those hands on you.

Just stand and raise your head – clench your fists and let this echo.

The pangs of racism in 1980’s Chicago during the age of Reaganomics will try – but fail in its efforts to euthanize your humanity.

If memory serves – I believe that this is around the time when your Dad is laying into you about “words being power” and ” to keep your nose in those books.”

Just roll with it… He is on to something, just listen like it is your first hearing whenever he gets the notion to do so.

I can’t tell you everything, but you are stronger than you know, because you are the son of those who refused to die

P.S…

Don’t roll your eyes about those Youngblood philosophies from your Dad, those lessons will save your life many times over.

Be nice to your little sisters, okay?

And – learn to bob and weave with your brothers.

Signed,

Shun P. sometime in the 21st century.