Two attempted murder charges and a history of criminal behavior spelled a dead-end life for Sidney Sims...but something happened -- knowledge, volition, and action transformed Sims life from monochrome predictability of retrograde to a vibrant multi-hued life of adventure and personal transformation in service of others.
Last week we talked about the transformative power of the arts with Leonard Buschel and "Punch" our two favorite drug smugglers and diamond thieves (retired). This week, keeping on the same theme, we have Sidney Sims.
Listen live: http://us7.maindigitalstream.com/2137/
My name is Sidney Sims. Born 1978 to Samuel Young an Linda Wynn Sims. A beautiful mix of black foot and cherokee tribal vibrations. Our journey has forever been forged as singular. Trinity park, a urban but rural neighborhood in Charlotte, Nc, I began my plight. The westside story reborn in the blood of a free Charlottean. Life was more than living those days. Poetry became my nurture as pads and pencils began to speak my thoughts in a lucid language. I could write. My brother and sister appeared years from me in both directions so it seemed. I guess the penalties of the perimeter being the middle child.
My thought process was the pattern of stimulations others felt could be detrimental to my soul. Nevertheless, my soul was born free, forever flying as the flight would allow until middle school became expulsion only because my defense was to protect the weak. Harding univ. High school would become the home of my higher learning and the world would swallow me up. The highs and lows of poverty-stricken perspectives until my decisions would alter my education.
Football was my gift then. A way to release the power of aggression and the ballet of pain placed perfectly between scrimmage lines of miracles in the making. I continued into elevation. College became prison quickly as one. The kleptomaniac became the crack supplier. I am a work in motion you see. Progress yes but so much is the lesser result of such to be learned. From these moments into infinity, it seemed prison nights accumulated never to end.. I began to journey deeper in me. See sight of self I recognized but couldn't fathom as ownership of many acts eluded my own sanity. The birth of a blessing manifested into a monster of miserable mania. I Kno I am more. I can be more. I will be more. So it is the birth of a new soul. The ability to share life and live in the hearts of so many individuals pain. Curving the failure and finding beauty in the ability to rise. To change. To become. I am Sidney Sims. The ability to be each of us all.
