{"id":1978,"date":"2013-06-06T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2013-06-06T10:23:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T14:23:16","slug":"i-couldve-been-a-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1978","title":{"rendered":"I Could’ve Been A Contender"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You don’t understand.\u00a0 I coulda had class, I coulda been a contender.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am, let’s face it.” <\/em><\/strong>~ Terry Malloy<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The above is taken from the movie, On The Waterfont<\/a><\/em>, a poignant and powerful scene.<\/p>\n

My godmother had told me about this movie over the weekend. So, I decided to venture over to the New York Public Library and borrow it.<\/p>\n

The movie hit home for me because a close relative who I love very much works as a longshoreman. Actually, I have quite a number of relatives who work or have worked at the waterfront.<\/p>\n

It’s a rough job. I’ve been privy to a lot of it based on my relatives working the docks.<\/p>\n

They love their jobs immensely, but there is a lot that comes with it that isn’t so attractive.<\/p>\n

This movie brings such realities to the forefront.<\/p>\n

There is much to be said on the topic, however, this isn’t my focus.<\/p>\n

\n

“I could’ve been a contender.” <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Have you ever felt this way in your life?\u00a0 If it wasn’t for someone or something, your life would have gone differently?<\/p>\n

I definitely feel this way. I made some wrong decisions in my life and based on those wrong decisions, my life went a different direction.<\/p>\n

One example of this, is when I left home at the age of 19 and eloped. To me, that was the single biggest mistake I’ve ever made because I was going to college at the time and had to drop out.<\/p>\n

I got married too young. I was immature. I was naive. I didn’t have any life experience. I should have focused on completing my college education, instead of getting married (i.e., I was married once before).<\/p>\n

A wrong decision changed the course of my life.<\/p>\n

I’m not sitting here dwelling on it, however, I do recognize how our decisions can pretty much make or break our lives.<\/p>\n

\n

“I could have been somebody.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes. I truly believe I could have been somebody if I didn’t have negative associations.<\/p>\n

In this movie, his brother was the one who sold him (Marlon Brando’s character) out.<\/p>\n

His brother placed bets and fixed who would win. He told him it wasn’t his night. His brother’s decision destroyed his boxing career.<\/p>\n

Which is why the above scene broke my heart. I am well aware of how one wrong move, by a person or a bad decision, can change the course of someone’s life forever.<\/p>\n

I am grateful the Lord gives us second chances. I don’t know where I would be today if He didn’t.<\/p>\n

Have you seen this movie? If so, what did you think of it? Also, has God given you a second chance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You don’t understand.\u00a0 I coulda had class, I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am, let’s face it.” ~ Terry Malloy The above is taken from the movie, On The Waterfont, a poignant and powerful scene. My godmother had told me about this movie over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10],"tags":[452,451,453,449,450,454,174,447,448],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}