“…You know how we do this thing. Kick Some Ass, get the girl and look dope while you’re doing it…”—Givens (Samuel Jackson) Triple XXX

This statement is Samuel Jackson’s (in the character Givens) take on making a difference in this world. I wanted this life. I wanted this life when I left Kalamazoo with the ambition to do something and make something big of my life. I wanted this life when I determined I wasn’t spending the rest of my life working in a damn GM Factory. Fuck that. College here the fuck I come. I wanted this when I stole five cars having determined I was gonna make good shit happen in my life by any fucking means necessary.

ME: (I was laying it on thick to my life partner Lucy about feeling under appreciated by people.) I said, “I can get real transactional. Remember?”

Lucy: “So whose victimizing you now?” (Ain’t that some shit. I’m talking about getting transactional and Kicking Some Ass. Lucy raises the issue of my playing the victim.)

Was I playing the victim when divorced my ex and mother of my two-year-old son without considering counseling? Was I playing the victim when I turned my back on the church behind a major career and pastoral defeat because I had never experienced a professional setback? Was I playing the victim when I plunged my life into a criminal odyssey because it was a lot easier than accepting what the conflicts in my shallow life were trying to teach me about me? The interesting thing about all this shit is how playing the victim can look like Kicking Some Ass at the time. Was I playing the victim when all that shit when down? Hell the fuck no. Them MFs had it coming, including the ex. The question was posed “Would you rather be right or happy?” The answer: right. Being right makes me happy…” I’m about winning all the battles and the fucking war. But this shit was sounding good and makes a good subject for reflecting on.

But, enough with that shit. The good news, maybe my speaking on this shit will help some other Cat get the girl and look dope while the fuck he’s doing it. I’m down with that shit. I had this accountant back when I was consulting who would tell me every time he did my taxes I was hustling backwards. Hustling backwards was my taking two steps backwards financially for every one step I took forward. While I didn’t have a lot of money when I was helping The Right Rev. Good Dr. Delores Sanders Washington with that damn shack of church she had, I wasn’t hustling backwards. When I did pro bono stewardship consulting for small and hat-in-hand nonprofits, I wasn’t hustling backwards. When I had on my heart and in my mind when I arrived in Atlanta that God had called me to begin a new ministry, fuck the episcopal church, I wasn’t hustling backwards. My accountant was talking about not getting anywhere financially as hustling backwards. He was looking at all the fucking red on that spreadsheet with my name on it as hustling backwards. But, son of a bitch, it occurred to me the real hustling backwards I was doing was always taking and not giving. I’d been hustling backwards by living below my potential. I was hustling backwards by being stingy with the blessings God had for me and wanted to bestow on my ass. While I’m writing about Kicking Some Ass, that shit was kicking me in the ass. What the fuck?

I’m not hustling backwards these days, not knowingly. There was a classic movie back in the day called “Coming to America.” There’s a scene in this burger joint where all the employees are being shown where they’re gonna be working. The owner says to this one Cat “…you’re gonna be on fries…” The Cat responds “…you mean I not gonna be on the register? How I’m gonna make any money if I’m not on the register…” If you don’t get this, ask the most crooked person you know to explain it to you. They’ll understand it. When it comes to Kicking Some Ass, the question today is how am I gonna make money if I’m not on the register of my life?

I thought that shit was funny back then. I understood it but I get it for my life now. I’m only on the register of my life when I embrace personal maturation thru character evolution. That means I’m only on the register of my life when I can enjoy and celebrate being who I am and the badass God and my life have created me to be. That means I’m only on the register of my life if when I’m Kicking Some Ass, getting the girl and being dope while doing it, I can look in the mirror and see I’m becoming more fully human and beautiful. Being the badass I am, getting to this place, getting to this understanding, now this is the shit Givens called Kicking Some Ass.

Read more about the Hunter story In These Rooms.

The Struggle Continues...

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