Rent-A-Center

I believe this truth to be self evident--that all men are not created equally. Thomas Jefferson was correct in writing that all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, but the first part of his Declaration was (and still is) patently false. All men should be treated equally, but this belief that we're all endowed with the same intangibles to succeed in life is bogus.

As a society we really get caught up in this notion of equality, and as a result people are not treated accordingly. For instance, some people are born with a certain amount of resilience and others aren't. That lone quality in my estimation is the difference between Mookie and Jay-Z. The reason nobody knows Mookie is because he stopped trying to sell his hot album after a bunch of people turned him down the first time. Jay-Z, on the other hand, probably kept trying until somebody noticed.

For all of his phenomenal personality traits, Flash is not terribly resilient. You can say that his resilience is why he made it as far as college based on his past, but his flame flickers; it doesn't rage. Last season after he got owned by a taller, longer defender he privately told me that he was better off going to a smaller Division III school instead of pursuing his dream to play at a higher level. Some might say that reality set in, but I would have liked to see him push even harder to make sure that he could dominate a longer defender the next time around.

Knowing that he quit his college team, I decided to call him so we could talk about his decision.

Me: Hello.
Flash: Yo man! Coach! What's good?? I missed you, man!
Me: Yeh? You missed me so much that you didn't return your away uniform or clean your apartment even though I told you the landlord was on my case.
Flash: My fault, man. It wasn't personal. I just ain't have a ride out there.
Me: That's your excuse?
Flash: I messed up. My fault. My fault! What's good, man? How are you?!?
Me: Things are good with me. We're 5-9 right now, but what's up with you? I see that you quit the team.
Flash: Yeh man. I couldn't mess wit that Coach. He ain't a winner. I felt trapped in his system. It wasn't worth my time.
Me: Three games, though?
Flash: Yeh. I figured my son needs better health insurance and we got bills to pay so I went and got a job.
Me: Oh yeh. Where at?
Flash: Rent-A-Center. I got benefits there and everything. They give me good hours. It's cool.
Me: Hold up, though. I bet you dropped out of school altogether.
Flash: Yeh. I ain't have time for both.
Me: I know you well enough to know that you probably didn't officially withdraw either which means you probably owe the school money and can't go back there now.
Flash: haha. I guess you do know me well!