EXCERPT FROM "KISS THE GROUND"

... How many times had I gotten on board a plane? A lot less than I had ventured and dared to go on one of those carnival roller-coaster rides! Not once did I hear anyone say let us check out the history of the plane that Marcus has to fly on. I did not even hear my often times skeptical favorite aunt inquire, “did any of you do a background check on the pilot and his crew, you know that the movies be showing you how planes get hijacked and often times it is the crew or one of the crew members that had something to do with it”. I chuckled inside; hold my hand to my mouth as I shucked my head from side to side in humorous truthful belief.

We all do it I nodded in affirmation to myself. We trust people, place and things up front until we are given a reason to doubt and become skeptical or paranoid. I was so engulfed with the idea of going to the States, and so too was everyone else; no one gave concern about something negative or bad happening. The idea of the opportunity itself seemed to out weight any and all possibility of something going wrong. I guess that is how we should be as adults. I mean little kids seem to have that gift. They are free in their play and demonstrate a willingness to be in the moment.

It is not that I believe that you have to abandon being accountable and responsible and practicing proper and health restraints. What I am saying is that sometimes, we focus so much on what might go wrong that we never step foot on the plane or we never get into the car. We never get to our destiny.

Crane was like that. He ran a small neighborhood shop back home in Trinidad. He was about in his early fifties. A good looking man for his age, healthy and rich by TNT standards. Yet, he never got married, he had known children and his philosophy to life was, “why risk it?” I fought many times before leaving to come to Trinidad to understand why a person with that type of philosophy to life was financially stable and yet so barren. Crane would debate the other local elders that anyone trying to make a better life for themselves outside of home was insane. He would say things like, “if you go f-up, f-up here”. “Why go somewhere, where you don’t know and come back to what you forgot?” On the surface it made a lot of sense. But after I would have my own experiences and I would come to the conclusion that Crane was a man void of adventure. Not that anything is wrong with “staying put”. I saw it as a man that could have done much more in life with his life.

TAKE YOUR FEET OFF THE GROUND, LEARN TO FLY

PERHAPS THEN YOU WILL FIND OPPORTUNITIES

THAT YOU DID NOT KNOW EXISTED!