Book 271 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: A balanced mind leads to extraordinary lives!

Book – Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Book Description:

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

Reflection:

I think it is safe to say that my wife and I are now officially both Trevor Noah fans after finishing his memoir together.

She is already asking me to find more books like Trevor’s for our next adventure together. I keep asking her, “What exactly does that mean?” as I’m busy searching for the next read. Her response is, “I don’t know, just find more books like that one!” I think she is asking me to find her more amazing stories that she can learn, laugh, and discover someone or something new where you are excited to see what is around the next corner at each chapter.

You got it sweetheart, just let me dig through my catalog of amazing books that I’ve never read before and pull a rabbit out of my hat that is just like Born a Crime that you will love. Ah, the joys of marriage…am I right?

What I personally loved most about this story was how much I learned about South African history as Trevor weaved incredibly entertaining stories of his childhood exploits effortlessly into the fabric of a complicated social political system in ways I could comprehend. I think that is why this book was such a surprise for me as it really had nothing to do with Trevor Noah, the comedian and Daily Show Host. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I can even remember him discussing his career much at all at any point of the book to be honest. This book was all about Trevor Noah, just some random “colored” child that was struggling to find an identity as he was becoming a young man and navigating through an incredibly complex and rapidly evolving ecosystem.

In this story of the young Trevor’s life, I once again heard a similar tale that I’ve heard from countless other memoirs of successful artists and creative thinkers. What I heard again was a story about someone who was “different”, that was forced to use their imagination as a child to be their best friend due to their unique circumstances. Someone that loved to read, question, challenge, and explore.

When I hear Trevor’s story, I couldn’t help but think of other life stories we’ve heard on this journey that told a similar tale. Stories like Shonda Rhymes’ memoir A Year of Yes, Will Smith’s memoir Will, Kevin Smith’s memoir, Just Kids about the life of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, Jane Goodall’s memoir, and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. They all have the same thing in common it seems like, each one of them found their imaginations early on in life, a lot of times because they had no other choice, and they followed that voice to where they are today.

It makes me think of the lessons we just discussed from My Stroke of Insight in just how much our world is dominated by Left Brained thinking focused on time, science, order, math, consistency, language, and logic. When people learn early on the power of using their creative and imaginative right brain and then figure out how to apply it to this left-brain world, you get these explosive and powerful stories of people like young Trevor Noah who go on to become the Trevor Noah’s of the world. Their ability to tap into their whole brain’s capabilities are a testament to what a life can look like in this world when you are balancing use of all the gifts that God has given us to bring something unique and valuable into this world.

If this world were reversed and we were dominated by right brained thinker’s vs left brained today, I would have to guess that a lot of these stories I would be finding would be of these young people living in a creative world that someone found their logic, language, and time management capabilities early on and figured out how to bring unique ideas to life that would be seem revolutionary to a world of Right Brained creatives and imagination junkies.

The moral of the story would be the same though, living an existence that is dominated by one way of living or thinking, we miss out on so much of what this world can offer.

Stories like Trevor’s, in my opinion, are a result of someone finding balance and leveraging all of their capabilities in an unbalanced world. These are the stories that remind us that we have a whole other side to us that can be beautiful and inspiring as well if we are willing to give it a try.

We all have this ability to tap into all of our mind’s capabilities if we want.

I know for me, when I’m equally using both sides of my brain, I feel balanced and fulfilled, which is my life’s mission at the end of the day.

Question: What is stopping you from regularly tapping into the creative and imaginative side of your existence?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Born a Crime