The title of this blog is inspired by a convo I had with one of my young guys few years back. If you meet Noah, he's one of those people that will walk past you and say the wittiest thing ever. Noah and I always have long convos on different things from hoops to being and older brother to why he showed up to our last practice, suited up and with plastic gloves on... LOL
Two years ago, our team attended a Brooklyn Nets game and the Nets were kind to offer us suite tickets including meals, etc.
On our way out, Noah in his funny/witty way of doing things starts packing up extra cookies and bottles of water in his backpack. His backpack was so full that you could see the bottles poking out through the bag.
I asked him, "Noah, where are you going with all those bottles?" He looked at me with his infamous grin and said -- "Coach...I got brothers and sisters at home, if one of us eats, we all eat..." He said it as a joke and we had a good laugh out of it but that moment and that gesture has stayed with me ever since.
Uncertainty and confusion has become the norm for us in the last couple weeks. With every scroll and swipe, we are flustered with doomsday articles to dark humored memes to people just flat out bugging out.
I get it though. Scary times right now and for those of us who are so used to a consistent normal, this is very dreary.
In a way, I feel that this break was necessary. So many people are burnt out and chasing the next thing, the next gig, the next goal.
In this pause, there's so much opportunity, for me personally, making time to call friends and family; writing more often and getting to the pile of books I plan to read this year and some projects both personal and on the work side.
In all of it, I keep pivoting back to staying levelheaded. I'm privileged to have been able to work mostly from home before the quarantine. There are so many people who will be hit hard by this uncertainty and inability to move around like we are used to.
More than anything, I'm calling on us to adopt Noah's mantra. I am challenging myself and anyone who reads this blog to practice kindness and to use this as a time to look out for our peers as much as we would for ourselves.
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