Deric's Debate: "THE DEATH OF IMPOSSIBLE"

(This Opinion-Editorial appeared in a recent edition of the African-American News and Issues)

By: Deric Muhammad


There once was a stalker named “Impossible.” He followed his prey 24 hours a day; 7 days a week and labored without let-up to make people believe in him. Every time his victims called the police on him they would claim it was just “impossible” to catch him. Every time they tried to shoot him they would say he was “impossible” to hit. He doomed an entire people with the cancer of impossibility.

Then one day a genius decided that he would ignore “impossible”. Since it seemed he couldn’t be killed, arrested, convicted or locked up he decided that the best way to deal with the stalker was to become a stalker, himself. The genius became a 24/7 stalker of thought process called “possibility”. This naturally infuriated impossible and a showdown took place.

This genius and “possible” fell deeply in love. It seemed like every time they got together they produced something great. The more they produced the more confident they became in their relationship. They became stalkers of one another and “impossible” had a “hissy fit”. He soon died a natural death. He just could not live with the reality that possibility was more powerful than he.

I offer this little anecdote as a picture of what holds us back from making progress as individuals and as a people. It is the way that we think. As children we though anything was possible, including climbing a 20 story building in a red and blue Spiderman costume. Somewhere along the way grown folks introduced us to the stalker of impossibility.

No one told that youngster that you CAN climb that building. You just need a bungee cord, helicopter, crane or an elevator to do it.

What do you desire in your life that someone has told you is impossible? We are all products of the race of life ran by billions of sperm cells and we were the winners in that race. Considering those odds, we are all miracles. Every time you look in the mirror you are looking at the impossible made possible, by God.

Contradictory to my own little story, you do not have to be a genius to produce greatness. Start by becoming a stalker of possibility. The hardest thing to kill in the universe is “thought”. If you notice, the genius never tried to kill “impossible” he just replaced it with a new thought.

When someone tries to convince you that a worthy goal is impossible get the hell away from them. Treat them like they are stalkers. Then you must become a stalker of the thought process of possibility, creating a picture of your desire in your mind and not stopping until you reach your goals.

Nearly a year ago, a Black man raised his right hand to become the president of the United States of America. Whether you agree with his performance as commander in chief, or not, we must all admit that he evaded the stalker called impossible and courted possibility. Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Beethoven, Tiger Woods and many other great men past and present defied the odds to do what conventional wisdom declared could not be done. And while we marvel at their work past and present, we must position ourselves to manhandle the future with the power of possibility.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad used to say that when God created Himself he destroyed “the impossible.” So whenever we entertain the thought of “impossibility” we are trying to resuscitate an already-destroyed idea. “Impossibility” is already dead; we just need to stop trying to revive it.