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That's Love! I write this week's column with a heavy heart and bittersweet tears in my eyes.
I am shedding happy tears because my wife and three kids are here spending a few weeks with me. I have not seen them since I left the United States in September, and my son and daughters are growing up so fast!
I am also crying tears of sorrow, and my heart is heavy and hurting. I feel sad because I am missing and thinking about my late father, Don Edward Marbury. My pops suffered a fatal heart attack four years ago at an NBA home game of mine at Madison Square Garden. Back then, I played for the New York Knicks.
This past Sunday, Dec 18, had my father lived, he would have turned 73 years old. What I wouldn't give or do to see him just once more. I really just want to hug my daddy. Kiss him. Tell him how much I love him and how I now realize he was right about so many, many things in life that he tried to teach when I thought I knew it all. I remember my dad saying, "Son, one day you may be smarter than me, but you will never be as wise as me."
My father, Mr Marbury, was a true patriarch. He did whatever he had to in order to take care of his family. His wife, my mother, the matriarch and queen of our family, Mabel Marbury, was just like him in that way. They complemented each other. My father was book and street smart, and my mother had a lot of common sense and knew how to treat people.
My mother would constantly tell us, "Anybody can say, 'I love you', but you gotta show me". My parents always showed love, especially to their seven children. They had five boys and twin girls. I could go around the world a 100 times and I would never find parents better than mine even with their faults.
We didn't grow up with much money or material things, but we were wealthy in so many other ways. Love was the number one thing. My parents opened our home to almost anyone. I could remember at least 10 to15 people, including my immediate family, our relatives and friends, all living in our four-bedroom apartment in the projects named Surfside Gardens, which is in a rough neighborhood called Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. We were also rich spiritually, health-wise and in family and friends. I was raised a Christian and to this day believe in God and His son, Jesus Christ. My family has been so blessed that none of us, our mates or our kids have ever been really sick. Our apartment was where everybody came to get something to eat, joke and laugh and stay awhile. Even guys in the NBA today used to stay at my house. People would tell us they felt welcomed and so much love there.
My mom was so right when she said, "Life is just a ball that goes 'round and 'round, and you don't ever know where it's going to stop". Everybody gets a turn to hold the ball, and go through good and bad times. That's why you have to treat people right because the way you treat people is the same way you will be treated."
I am living proof that is true. The love the people of Beijing have shown me from day one, the way they have embraced me, it's just a beautiful thing. I like to believe I am just getting back the love I have shown.
I am also a strong believer that love is a universal language spoken and understood by each person on earth. To me, though, showing and giving love should not be an option, but a global law.
As far as basketball news, we won our past two games, I played well and we are now 12-0. Sunday's win was for my pops. Hopefully, we will continue to remain undefeated. I know my mother would love that, especially since her 70th birthday is next Tuesday, on Dec 27.
I am so thankful and blessed to have great parents who have taught me the true meaning of love. And because of the love you have for me, my Beijing family, I say thank you. I love you, and I really mean that from my heart.
Love is love.
Sincerely yours,
Starbury
(China Daily 12/20/2011 page24)
