Here’s a quick preview of @Al_Patron’s “Thirds Eye View” book dropping November 28th

You can Pre Order the book HERE

III. Virility

“You have to be A man, before you can be THE man.” – @Blueraydre via Twitter

I remember wanting a pair of Jordan 15’s really bad and being that I did extremely well on my report card my father (who was never around) heard about this and promised to buy them for me. So that weekend we went into Manhattan, while in the city he took me to an expensive Italian restaurant, let me order whatever I wanted and purchased the sneakers for me as promised. Honestly this was the most time I spent with my father in about 7 or 8 years and all seemed well because it wasn’t about the sneakers and random spending; rather it was about the spending of time with my father. Surely, I had my grandfather, uncles, older cousins & basketball coaches but this was my father, there was no real replacing this type of bond, so I thought. Well, after the day’s events we were on the F train platform, my head was buried in a basketball magazine and as a train approached I asked my father if this was our train, in which he simply replied “no”. My face went back to being buried in the magazine; I look up briefly as the train pulls away only to notice my father is nowhere to be found. My father left me, again but this time was like a tease because I felt that this day was a turning point, for the good of our relationship, instead I wish I never wanted those sneakers.

It would be about another year or so before I saw my father again because he left me, again. The next time I saw him was my high school graduation, the biggest day of my life to that point and the last time I saw my father as my father. As my family and I were posing for pictures, a father to a good friend of mine came over to exchange congratulations with my parents, customary to say the least. However, this was Mr. Gibson, a man not known for holding his tongue and always backing it up. Mr. Gibson told my father “You’re never around, so you see your son is really like my son.” My father said nothing, that day, my father didn’t leave me; I left him.