notorious

Watched Notorious yesterday with Beb at Greenbelt 3.

Rap was an acquired taste for me. Aerosmith and Run DMC introduced it to me with their song "Walk this way" and Eminem reminded me of that musical leanings when he blasted everyone with "I am".

But what I can't understand about the Rap scene is the way violence is glorified that it spilled over to reality. By that I mean, why did artists like Tupac and Notorious got killed, gunned down to be more exact, in the 90s?

I just didn't get it until I saw the movie.

In one poignant scene, D-Rock, a childhood friend of BIG, who just got out of prison, said, "... the reason why we are what we are, as men, is because there was no one around to show us what it means to be a man. We have to figure it out by ourselves."

And I understood.

You see. Men, by design, will always fight. Our physical strength needs expression. And the usual expression is a fight. A battle. Ever wander, why men always loved action movies? Dreamt of having a light saber and be a jedi? Have these illusions of grandeur. Taken by such line like, "... what we do in life echoes in eternity!"

That, whatever that is, is in us. Because we are men.

But to fight for a purpose, like to protect what is beautiful and pure, though inscribed in our souls too, men had to learn that from other men. Older men had to teach young men how to do that. Older men had to teach younger men how to be a MAN. That is why having an involved father is very important to a son. A son learns manhood from his father.

It also goes to show that when we see struggling men in a 'father' role, it only goes to show how limited is the manhood lessons he received from his own father.

We, as men, are indeed our father's son.

But does that mean that men who grew up without a constant presence of a father is doomed for life?

No.

That's why there is what we call - salvation = )

Our earthly fathers, even if they are really great ones, have limitations and their limitations apparently, intelligently and wonderfully leads us to Him = )

In each one of us, there is this 'switch', this moment, that moment where you ask - is this all there is?

That is His imprint in us. That is His reminder to us that we really do not belong to this fallen world and that we belong to a place that's perfect.

Now, if you did not have a man to tell you that truth, then you will try to fill that void with a lot of things. Wrong things. Women. Power. Money. And in the end, all of these will always be found wanting.

Just as BIG did it.

Father, I am raising up the one reading this blog (that's you), may he finally realize that You have been waiting for him/her to talk to You right at this very moment = )