Your brother was a brother to me.

Kendrick Lamar says this line on “Sing about me, Im dying of thirst”. He says:

“But your brother was a brother to me....”

And then he carries on in the monologue and wordplay, like only Kdot can.

What had happened is that Kendrick is having a conversation with Dave, whose brother had been murdered/shot in Kendrick’s presence. And Dave comes to Kendrick to thank him for being there for his brother as he was dying.

So Kendrick is saying to Dave, your brother was your brother, but also my brother, even though he was my friend.

________

Its Father’s day today and its the first one that I can remember when I didnt wake up to the mini celebrations of school artworks and hearty smiles, some happy socks and quaint little gifts celebrating me, temporarily for a day.

My community on FatherhoodFridays, a movement to support and share challenges of being a father are spreading the same support in our WhatsApp group this morning, that we celebrate ourselves in the celebrations.

Yet I feel distant and displaced, when I think about what has come to pass. And the things that are now missing. The smiles that I cannot buy, and the laughs, the warm ones where my little people wake me up to leave a lasting impression on my day.

So my friends are my brothers, and their brothers are brothers to me. And I have found brothers in Christ, in the places where I have looked. And it remains imprinted, those lines that Kendrick speaks. And I share these words to build you up fam.

If we are to improve as men, we must be brothers to each other and check each other when we are tripping and going astray. Because our kids need us, they need us to smile at them and let them know that we are trying, to keep the smiles on their faces.

It requires this brotherhood. To be friends and brothers. And to help each other to be there for the kids, and not to be absent, and not to prioritize the company of our friendship, and not to delegate the time with our kids lower down the order.

Im a bit random today.