orators
like small children who say the wisest
and funniest things in their
transparency
my nephew
was sitting on my great uncle leonard's
lap and my great uncle leonard he smoked
cigars for like every year of my life
and i at the time was like 19 and i
never saw him without a cigar so uncle
leonard smelled like a what
a really
old cigar
and everyone knew uncle leonard smelled
like a cigar but no one had the courage
to tell uncle leonard that he smelled
like a cigar you guys everybody has had
uncle leonard somewhere in your life
right
because uncle leonard was my
grandmother's brother so he had clout
well jameel was three so he didn't know
he
he hasn't been introduced to being
politically correct yet
thank god
right
so
uh jameel is sitting on my uncle
leonard's lap and we're all talking
jameel stops in the middle of a sentence
and he goes
and the first time he sniffed we no big
deal but the second and the third time
then in this little three-year-old voice
uncle yennard
you tink
and you can hear a pin drop in the room
and
everyone in that moment was grateful
that they were not jameel's mother
and we all gazed at her bad mom bad mom
the next thing that fell out of uncle
leonard's mouth shocked us all
he looked at jameel with a long gaze
kind of not knowing what's about to
happen gays
and he said
jameel
i think you're right
i think i
think for the first time in my entire
life uncle leonard put out his cigar and
the next time we saw uncle leonard it
smelled like he had just been washed for
days
he was always clean but his clothes just
smelled like old cigars and it was very
clear that he got new clothes
see the freedom that a child has
the truth that they stand with i want to
take you on a journey back to that level
of truth
i want to take you on a journey on why
they say
think like a child don't act like a
child but think like a child
be as free as a child see children have
a sense of curiosity children forgive
sooner quicker faster
and if you want something new to come
out of your voice you have to put
something new in you in terms of a
commitment my son like i would watch the
way he would forgive me
he did something wrong one day and i had
to reprimand him and i immediately felt
guilty and i'm in my office he's like
four years old and i'm on my on my
computer and i'm crying because i'm
single mother guilt entrepreneur
and i'm like
and he comes around the corner goes
mommy and i just reprimanded him he's on
a timeout and all this stuff and i'm
upset i'm crying he's okay
[Laughter]
and he comes around the corner and i'm
and he says mommy
mommy i was like
yes
do you want to lay down with me
yes
and he goes and he lays out this little
skinny arm and i put my big ol head on
that arm
there's something that happens when we
allow ourselves to sit inside
freedom sit inside
transparency sit inside what i like to
call care frontation
that means i might push up against you a
little bit i might make you mildly to
moderately to significantly
uncomfortable in any form of mediocracy
but it's out of the spirit of love
you want to inspire people with your
voice from your child to your sibling to
your significant other to your community
to the world to this room be willing to
love me enough to tell me your truth
then love me enough to tell me my truth
then love me enough to just tell me the
truth
and and find
find
be willing to touch the edge of your own
comfort zone you show me yours
and i'll show you mine
you show me your heart
and i'll show you my love
you let me know that you're willing to
be imperfect and still have a perfectly
giving serving loving life then you give
me permission to let my imperfection out
into the world too
see you want to speak at another level
you got to be willing to love at another
level forgive at another level show up
at another level speak up at another
level pray at another level you have to
be willing on every level to up level
who you be on a daily basis
just saying
you