Past Life

I was talking to Amor the other day about past lives. (We were driving back to the ‘Burgh and in the 6 hour car trip we kinda went off on a tangent with some questions. It was pretty cool actually, cuz we touched on some things we’d never really delved deeply into before. It was nice to talk about new things.) She carries a belief that we all had past lives and we continue to evolve and move up in stature from one life to the next. I don’t know if I believe in this per se, but I did like the idea that we carry on from one life to the next with the same soul.
So it got me thinking about who I might have been in a past life. And I came to a startling conclusion in my own head. I was Len Bias. I can hear your impending aneurism from over here so allow me to explain.

• I love basketball. This has been reaffirmed this year as I’ve stopped my confliction with the sport and come back to watching/following it. Only now I’ve moved onto the L.
  I never did cocaine, but that’s only cuz I realize that if I were to try, I’m sure I’d buy. Everyday, until I died. Hard drugs aside, I had some pretty unhealthy party habits back in the day. I have an addictive personality. I was addicted trumpet, then bball, then alcohol & now performance art.
• I carry a soft spot for Maryland. Mom dukes has always spoken fondly of the state for some reason, something with her father and UMd, where Bias went to school. Pops is a fan of the Grateful Dead and there’s always been a photo of Terrapin Station around, album art, t-shirts, posters or magazine covers. UMd’s mascot is the Terrapin.
• Pops was also a C’s fan from back in the day. He had this green Celtics jacket that he wore everywhere when I was little. It was like the late-80s answer to the Members Only jacket for tall, lanky white guys. And now, one of my favorite players is a Celt (Big Ticket). Red Auerbach was a deity in my household too. We had those old instructional videos with Bird, Red and heavy cigar smoke that I used to watch all the time when I was tryna figure out roundball.
• Len Bias was black. Now I know what you’re thinking. “D, you are not African American.” And outwardly, you may be right. But deep down, I’m black. I love hip hop. Fried chicken and watermelon are my two favorite foods. I have rhythm. I rap. Sorta. I love ugly white women with big asses. (Ed’s note: Dylan is in a loving, committed relationship with a beautiful Spanish girl. He has not dated a white girl in years.)

So after she said this and I went through my inner monologue a few days later, this is what I came up with. And I got excited. I started thinking that everything made sense. Then I wiki’d it to see when Len Bias died. It was 1986. Rats. Now I have no clue who I mighta been....