MARCH 6TH- Life & Death; the double paradox!

I remember coming up as a child & always thinking I was going to die. I guess the thought still crosses my mind here and there. Anyhow, after being sick and sick and sick and sick all the fricking time, there were really times when I just wanted to go. It's kind of funny that when my Mom finally found a doctor to treat me & figure out what the heck was wrong with me all those years, is right around the same time I learned to appreciate life, 1998. Somewhere between 9th & 10th grade it was revealed to me that- a life with suffering is better than no life at all.

Most who came up around Cleveland know this story, & the ones who were invovled with it will NEVER forget March 6, 1998 @ Euclid Heights High School when our David Henry Parker dropped dead during the first minute of the tournament game. I will never forget how we (Shaw High School) were on the news every week for rioting and violence, but after he died there were no more altercations for the rest of the year. I will never forget the looks on everyone's faces as I walked through the hallways. & how every year after that we never lost a game at Euclid because it was D.P.'s house. How the time remaining on the clock was 5:33. How the score was 3-3 with David scoring the first 3 points of the game. More than anything I will never forget how #33 dying made me appreciate life!

Later that year when Mahdi was killed it was all too much. A young boy I had watched grow into a man! I will never forget JahNisha breaking the news to me on the way to school that morning. Me being too scared to walk two houses down & comfort the family. It was all too much. Sitting in the family section at the funeral with Nae Nae & Regina saying with tears running down our faces, "Damn, where was he hiding all these fine friends!" The reception at his mother "Cakey's" house & all the boys singing in the street Shai- "If I Ever Fall In Love Again". I remember it didn't even hit me that he died because I would only see him on holidays. That thanksgiving when everyone was down the street & he wasn't, that was the moment- I KNEW HE WAS GONE FOREVER. More than anything the moment I saw life after death; Elijah, the son he didn't know he had on the way. I know this shit isn't forever. This whole creation along with time is an illusion, but we need to appreciate every moment of life, no matter how hard we think it can be!

Rest In Peace

David Henry Parker

1-18-81~3-6-98

Mahdi Ibn Rasheed

3-6-80~9-15-98

& whats even crazier is the fact that my winamp plays random songs & as I am typing Master P "I Miss My Homies" just started playing & then Mary J. Blige "Everything" (Dave & his girlfriend's song... the song they played on the segment Channel 8 news presented the Sunday after he died)!