Mother’s Day Reflections: They’ll bring flowers to your funeral…

a rose to all my moms out there.

Whaddup People,

I’m writing this from a hotel in minnesota right now watching the Laker’s game.  The Laker’s have obviously underestimated their opponent so I figured to hell with the game and I might as well put down something random on the blog.  Well here it goes…

I’m in Minnesota this week visiting my Grandmother.  It’s actually a coincidence that it’s mother’s day weekend (it really just happened to be a weekend where my mother, father, and me could make the drive – my sister flew in from New York).  My Grandma was in the hospital a few weeks ago (don’t worry – she seems to be fine now) so we’ve really been meaning to make the trip since then.  Also a local cat on the Hip Hop scene passed earlier in the week (Eric aka N. fury aka Luhdisshit aka one eyed guy) so it definitely lit a fire under me to see people when you can.  The phrase that has been passing through my mind all week is, “They’ll bring flowers to your funeral, but they won’t bring you soup when you’re sick”.  I wanna say I came across that phrase in the one-man-show Roger Guenevier Smith did on Huey Newton (classic material so cop that if you can), but that’s neither here nor there.

Although I’m here in Minnesota now, I haven’t been here in a few years, and in some part I’m here now because my Grandma was in the hospital not too long ago.  Although she’s alright now, she is getting older so I did feel an immediacy to see her.   As I used to get here once every year or two, it seems that life gets in the way of me doing things like this.  I always got a show to do, a shift to work, a song to write, something to plan, or at least I have to feel the pressure of not doing these things if I’m not.  However, there will always be something else to do so this weekend has made me think a lot about priorities and how they should guide my decisions.

So I guess I’m constantly wondering where the balance lies.  Of course I gotta make my way in this world the best way I can, but I have to make time for my family and friends, and this is probably more for me than it is for them.  They give me my strength at the end of the day.  I often think that’s why I have stayed in Detroit up till this point.  I enjoy being able to have lunch with my dad, and having dinner with both parents on sundays.  Although a lot of my friends have left Detroit and I miss them, there’s many that have stayed and many more I have made.  That being said I do want to figure out how to travel a little more and pop in on my extended friends and fam.  But enough with the theory…

The weekend has been very relaxing for the most part.  Of course my family has the normal disfunctions (lol) but we’re pretty comfortable in the disfunction as of now.  My grandma still looks great.  My Uncle and Aunt have 2 beautiful daughters that are 11 and 12 respectively.  I even got to get a little music in my system.  I checked out a hip hop band by the name of Parallax.  I actually met these brothas when I was on the Sweat Equity Tour in Austin for SXSW.  I didn’t get to see them play down there, but they killed it up here in Minnesota.  And we were definitely on Lake Minnetonka for the performance (peace to the homie Prince).  Also as a special treat my uncle is a bass player and I got to see him and his band practice (my hip hop peeps don’t always believe this but you can do music after 50. lol).  Music really does run in the family.  I gotta run but I’ll probably do blogs on each of these wonderful acts soon with all the necessary links and all that.

Anyways, not sure where this post is going, but that’s why it’s a random thought (that’s D. Allie language for “read at your own risk”).  However, I think I can sum it up with this.  We often take things for granted, and Joni Mitchell says, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.  As I am often guilty of that, I’d like to say that today is not that day, and I know what I have in my Grandma, my mother, and all my friends and family.

PS – I can’t let a mother’s day blog go without discussing my mother.  Words cannot really describe my love for her.  I love the relationship we share, I cherish the conversations we have, and it’s funny but I think she takes care of me more now than she did when I was a kid.  I think she wanted me to figure it out for myself, but she has always been a safety net for me.  I always thought I got my smarts and music from my Dad (who is my best friend), and in regards to my mother I always feel I got my social skills from her and an ablility to party (there was a long time where she could drink me under the table. lol. I’ve had to train by working at a bar for 4 years to get the edge).  They say that daughters always marry men who remind them of their father, and with that being said I would be honored to find a women that compared to my mother.  Although, that’s probably why I have so many troubles with women.  lol. I am truly a sucker for a strong beautiful woman.  I believe my man Fluent said it best when he wrote, “thank God for pretty woman with opinions”.  As always, I could go on and on, but I should better just end this and actually spend some more time with my mother on this day so I’ll leave with this.   Through the ups and downs and all arounds, my mother has always remained a lady in the best sense of the word and I love her for that.  Happy Mother’s Day To All.

Tags: Mother's Day, Parallax