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On a stage that so many dream of occupying. You dream of exiting.
You reveal the pain of disillusionment in your eyes. This is not the dream we think it is.
How have we let you down? How have we consumed you as the entree of our own delusion?
Perfection. Doubt. Insecurity.
You have pushed your body to the limits. For your own satisfaction, surely…
Or is it merely for our own entertainment?
Your body is something that you’ve been told we own.
Bought for a pretty penny by the very culture and entertainment industry That keeps black women like you from literally owning their power.
Show up for us or you’ve failed us. Feed our greedy mouths with your power and magic.
Be the star for us to wish upon. We ache to be amazed.
Yet how do we support YOU in meeting this insatiable need of ours?
The toxic masculine says push, push, push!
Neglect the needs of the soul.
Fit into the mold that we’ve made for you.
Its not ok to not be ok.
Perform Perform Perform!
No time to feel.
Aren’t you used to pushing past all barriers? The greatest is not allowed weakness.
Forget your own happiness and be our poster child of success. Over and over you see this happening to stars like you in every arena. Brittany, Whitney, Simone... Who's next?
Sure, we need you as a reflection of our own impossible dreams coming true. Yet we also need for you to show us the greatness of our weakness.
To give us permission to fail.
To allow us to rise up and say NO!
I have a right to ownership of my own life. I have a right to be honored for my process. I have a right to challenge the definitions of success. I have a right to push the bounds of the impossible from my own curious joy.
I have a right to say NO. When its not right for me.
Maybe that is your medicine for us, Simone. To show us that when the YES comes easily, the NO is the hardest.
When women have said yes to please everything and everyone around them And there is nothing left to give ourselves.
There is no joy, no magic, no sense of self-worth. Even at the top you are at the bottom.
You look around and you are alone up there. We’ve abandoned you when you needed us most.
We’ve taken you off your throne, And put you on a pedestal.
We wanted you to be good, but not so good that it made our own dreams out of reach. We made you smaller for your greatness, so we could shine brighter.
We sacrificed your joy for our own flimsy dreams of accomplishing the impossible. We don’t deserve you.
You are a star But not in the way you anticipated.
You are leading generations of women and people of color Down the path of true sovereignty.
The balancing point where the good of self and other are held in equal regard. Where the accomplishments of the body meet the fulfillment of the soul.
This year the golden medal has taken an unexpected shape. Not as a round medallion, strung upon your neck…
No, you have already surpassed that level of greatness, Time and time again.
This time you again have pushed the boundaries of our imaginations And surpassed our standards of the impossible.
You, as a black woman, as the greatest gymnast of all time, Are reclaiming the boundaries of your own sovereignty.
The glory of the gold medal is yours for the reshaping. That’s how high level you are as the magical alchemist of your life.
I am cheering you on in the most unexpected of ways.
No matter what happens in the arena, No matter how much it seems the face of failure to the rest of us...
The Gold Throne goes to you, Simone.