Celebrating My Dad!

It was dad’s birthday yesterday! And there are a lot of things I could say about how amazing the man is and how its okay that we don’t always agree on things, and that we’ve faced interpersonal challenges together, and how he’s my hero, so on and so forth… And all of that would be true. But I actually wanted to recount an evening he and my brothers had with him the night BEFORE his birthday that sums up who he is.

Provider and protector.

Matthew just wants to spread peace throughout the galaxy.

So America is in racial upheaval as of this month, especially the past 2 weeks due to killings and issues surrounding police and rioting. Its all over the news and #Ferguson or #MikeBrown is everywhere! Well the night before last, Dad just set us all down, us four Bradley Boys, to mainly tell us that he loved us. Through all of the fear, rage and conspiracy going on in the world, Dad mostly wanted to remind us that he loves us and that God loves us.

And that kick started my brothers and I naturally finding things to celebrate about each other. I congratulated and encouraged my brothers for the past year they’d had, through highs and lows. It was timely too, this meeting, because I had wanted to talk to Ethan recently and tell him how proud I am of him as he goes through the changes he is facing.

And I told Matthew he had inspired me to be more of a go-getter as far as art and life is concerned. I like his hustle

Ethan and Gamora are lean, green, stylin’ machines!

and his attitude that he can do anything he sets his mind to. He is ready for anything and I love that about him and it felt good to finally say that amongst us guys.

I had heard Daniel, the youngest had been coming into his own as well and is growing into his teen years just fine, speaking up for himself and unafraid to be himself. I had worried about him just because I’m his older brother but when Matthew brought up Daniel’s successes lately I just felt at ease; Daniel is tougher than he looks!

At the end, Dad got out some Communion wine and bread and we just recalled the goodness of God in our lives and gave thanks for the love between us. Dad admitted in light of craziness on the news, he was worried and concerned about our safety, especially with me going back to college and not being around as much again. But we know we are loved and have love to give and that makes all the difference no matter what anyone outside my family is doing. What matters is home and family.

Hero stance!

And I noticed that especially when life gets terrifying, sentiments like these don’t sound so cliche anymore. They can be the difference between life and death, emotionally and literally. So tell your people that you love them. In the end, everything and everyone dies, but souls do live on to inspire and transform life for the better.

I’m glad Dad had a great birthday yesterday just him and the family… the most noteworthy thing of all.

Yours,

JOSIAH!

BOYHOOD: Dinner & A Movie With MOM

Instagram moment!

It’s raining like crazy today!

Anyway, I’m gonna go back to August 1st. So I love my mom right, and my Dad has always encouraged the brothers and I to treat her right and do nice things for her. I was not only raised by my mom obviously, but I was educated by her too because she Homeschooled us as kids; yup, all the way up through high school. And because she has done so much for me, I have always felt there was NOTHING I could possibly do that could measure up to all she has given me.

Truth is I can’t.

And then I remembered, my mom isn’t a demanding woman; she doesn’t ask for a lot and she doesn’t flaunt her motherliness all over the place expecting certain treatment. She just loves people and that’s enough for her.

That realization gave me the kick in the pants to take her out again to see the movie Boyhood by Richard Linklater. The last movie I took her too was You Again!, that Jamie Lee Curtis versus Sigourney Weaver movie from a few years back. But we didn’t get to eat dinner that time. This time would be different.

So as broke as I was, Mom was her awesome self again, wanting to experience Baltimore and this “awesome Charles theater” I kept talking about. I should’ve known she wouldn’t care about paying for things; presence over presents. And I mean she has always provided and Boyhood was all about that, so it was kind of poetic.

So mom and I caught up on the drive down to Bmore, talking bills, summer time, entertainment news, etc. We even took a weird back road where we got to see all of these HUGE old rustic houses; she and my dad always liked walking/driving through neighborhoods admiring big houses. Finally we made it to Charles St.

Our first stop was Teatro Toppas for dinner. Its built right next door to The Charles and I’d never been there. “Small plates, big pleasure” is right! Mom and I laughed over plates of kale (how hipster of us), lamb chop w/ rhubarb BBQ sauce, fried bass, shrimp and calamari; I had never had fried anything that was so spot on and so lightly fried and it was superb! Next thing we knew it was time to see the movie, but we’d recommend Teatro Toppas to anyone in the DC/Baltimore area!

So I got a good laugh when I realized I had confused The Charles for The Senator! I was told one of these theaters was very old-school looking, with curtains and that old-timey feel. So that was a bummer, but then we were overcome with how vast the auditorium was; instead of seats stacked on each other like in traditional theaters, the rows were spaced out stretching several, several yards in every direction. Wow!

Courtesy of Google Images

Our feelings during and after the movie was just a feeling of awe: its amazing to watch a 2hour movie of kids aging 12 years in one sitting. The closest and maybe most recent experience like this was Harry Potter movies, difference being obvious – we grew up with the actors.

The story is very simple and obvious – growing up. The movie follows Ellar Coltrane as Mason from the age of 7 to 19 as his family moves to Texas to start a new life. The story follows him and his sister and mother as they reunite with their dad played by Ethan Hawke. Honestly the story could have followed any one of them in that family, or more specifically Mason’s sister, because it is just so cool to watch these same young actors grow 12 years right before your eyes.

I really don’t want to say more than that so that you can watch the movie for yourself. I admit that the movie might be more amazing as an experimental movie technically due to sticking with the same actors. The story is fine and familiar in some ways but its the behind the scenes knowledge and the way its been marketed that will put you in that theater and you will get your money’s worth for sure.

Mom and I on the drive home had a lot of fun decoding the family dynamics, mainly between the mom and dad characters. Their relationship and separate lives around Mason are very interesting to watch and Ethan Hawke is just awesome to watch since I don’t regularly watch his movies. And let me say it was awesome seeing Patricia “Kissin’ Kate Barlow” Arquette again, its been a while!

Courtesy of Google Images

Sorry I really want to get into the nitty-gritty of the movie that mom and I did but – you just gotta go see it. But its nights like that one with my mom that fill me with happiness. Most of the time I just talk to my mom about movies but rarely do I get to see any with her, lately mostly since I’m at school for another year. She had an amazing time, just her and I catching up and it was a lot fo fun sharing my kind of new “home” in Baltimore with her and showing her where my college friends hang out and getting a taste of something new. And I think that movie gave me a small taste of what it must be like to be her, to be a parent, to watch kids grow up so quick right before your eyes! I think I appreciated her love even more after that night.

She says she and Dad will go to Teatro Toppas one night soon. But I do want to take her out for mother/son bonding time again and cover everything! But I remember that love is really what matters to her and spending a night out with good food and a great movie experience just her and I was just what the doctor ordered and I look forward to out next adventure together.

Yours,

JOSIAH!

Be the Wave

April, 1993 – July 4 2014. God rest the young man Waverly “WAVE” Roberts. He impacted people in so many innovative and positive ways that I’m only just beginning to understand. #TowsonTiger for life. Rest in perfect peace and power buddy. Glad I got to know you if only for a little while.

Its taken me a month to write this and now I am finally sharing it. Rest assured my Dad and I have talked about it and to my friends who have been affected my thoughts aren’t new. On July 4th of this year, a college friend of mine passed away. I believe that he was 22 years old and a senior at Towson University. His name was Waverly “WAVE” Roberts. I don’t know the causes. I did want to know when the news broke; we’re usually like that initially. But as the days wore on and after I had the privilege of sharing touching moments at his open funeral service, i realized I don’t want to know how he died. Its way more important to know how he lived.

I only knew Wave for 4 or 5 months last year. We took the same directed study class maintaining film equipment in the lab. He was a very laid back guy but very focused. Great smile too! His concentration was in Audio and he wanted to be a music producer. He could always been seen carrying his laptop or a keyboard and ever present Beats headphones.

He also had a walk, a gate about him that was cool but slow and methodical too; like he was at his own pace and nothing would interrupt it or even rush him, if he didn’t want to be. Like the pop song he would “go his own way”.

That’s kind of along the lines of what the pastor at his service said, summing up Wave’s life. Wave happened to you; and you couldn’t control him; just like a real wave. He had an energy certification of some kind in his community and was a serious academic according to his friends and cousins. And that inspired a lot of the people that Wave surrounded himself with.

In fact it hit home for me seeing as over 200 people came out to support his family at the funeral service! he touched a lot of people.

When I got the news it freaked me out but not in an explosive way but in a confusing way. He was the youngest person to die that I knew. It didn’t seem right that someone with so much promise didn’t even get to graduate college. It was even weirder because though I wasn’t his close friend, I felt that we could have been and even maybe collaborators in the far flung future

Maybe we will be – in heaven one day.

Wave has inspired me to be the best that I can be, as cliche as it sounds. but really what other response is there when someone dies? The guy was remarkable in ways I am only beginning to understand, and so much of it blew me away at that service, how proud his loved ones were despite the pain.

You could feel the love.

I still think about him and the little bit that his life impressed on me. i hope I never forget him and what I know he stood for. I hope I can impact the world in my own positive way, and ride the wave. if I can’t ride the wave, I hope to be surrounded by loving people just like Waverly was who can help me.

Thanks for the brief yet powerful ripples in my life, Wave, and rest in perfect peace my brother.

Yours,

JOSIAH