Byte: Nathaniel Turner ~ The Miracle In Gary, Indiana!

Hi,

Everybody,

And welcome back to the podcast.

I think this week that it's really apropos that I interview Nathaniel Turner,

Because he was named after a very well-known and famous enslaved Black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free Black people in Virginia in August of 1831.

And as I say in the episode,

I first heard about Nat Turner's rebellion by reading Smithsonian Magazine.

It's one of those things that happens in history that they choose not to teach us in grade school,

Or at least my grade school.

Well,

This week,

I introduce you to Nathaniel Turner,

Who describes himself as a man on a mission to help people live better lives.

And he does that by teaching parents how to raise amazing kids,

But also helping adults build the lives they've always dreamed about.

And I do want to address the fact that the news has been particularly heartbreaking and heart-rending lately.

I know so many of my listeners are just deeply feeling individuals who are highly intelligent.

And I just applaud you for keeping going,

And I want you to know that I witness each and every one of your brave hearts as we walk through this very strange timeline and what's happening right now.

I'm grateful that you all listened to the podcast.

Again,

I'm going to reiterate that I think it's important to know and to listen to podcasts like this so that we can acknowledge that this world is,

In fact,

Filled to the brim with excellent human beings,

Despite what the news media wants us to believe.

And one of those,

Frankly,

After you hear this episode,

Is Nathaniel Turner.

He's inspired.

He's intelligent.

And yeah,

He's here to make a difference in the world.

So now,

Without further ado,

Here's my interview with Nathaniel Turner.

I would say that Miraculous is the—oh,

This is even better.

Miraculous is that in 1981,

In the spring of 1981,

Five families,

Five people,

Decided to love me for no good reason.

And each of them,

In their own way,

Told me that I could get away with it.

I could do more with my life.

Magical,

Miraculous,

Or Mysterious?

Yes.

Magical.

Watching my son be born.

Mysterious,

It's every day.

I don't know what the day is going to hold.

Today,

People talk about—I wrote this recently,

That yesterday's history,

Tomorrow's a mystery,

But truly,

Today's a mystery.

If we can do this—and I shared this with my wife earlier,

Which I find it interesting that you're asking this—if we can understand that both yesterday and today are homes that are inside these very tall privacy gates,

And that once we—once yesterday is gone,

We have no right to look back into the gate of yesterday.

And once we're in today,

We have no right to look into the gate of tomorrow.

So that—the mystery is today.

What can I do with today to be better today than I was yesterday?

Perhaps better today than I was at any point in time in my life.

That's—so you said mystery,

Magic.

Yeah,

I said magical,

Miraculous,

Or mysterious.

Magical,

Miraculous,

Or mysterious.

And I would say miraculous—have I answered that part yet?

Miraculous is just that I'm here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That I'm here.

That people—I would say that miraculous is—oh,

That's even better.

Miraculous is that in 1981,

In the spring of 1981,

Five families,

Five people decided to love me for no good reason.

And each of them in their own way told me that I could do more with my life.

In fact,

They paired it what my son would later pair it to me when he was at the same age.

When I was 16,

Five people told me,

Nate,

You can do more with your life.

I just met with my high school guidance counselor in the spring of my sophomore year.

And he asked,

You know,

What do you want to do?

And I thought,

I want to go to college.

My friends are going to college.

And he says to me,

You're not college material.

The best you can hope to do,

Nate,

Is join the military.

He wasn't saying I could be an officer or a gentleman.

He said,

You know,

I could be a grunt.

He didn't even think that I was good enough to work in the steel mill,

Which would have been perhaps a preferable choice.

Now,

What he didn't know was that my father had given me three things that I could do,

Three things he said you must do.

In two years,

There are three things you must do.

And I was like,

What happens in two years?

Well,

In two years,

You'll finish high school.

And in two years,

You have to,

One,

Get out my house and get a job.

Two,

You could go to the service,

But I forbid you from going to the service.

I was there and you will not do that.

And three,

You could go to college.

And I was a C student at best.

And I was like,

How am I going to go to college?

So now I tell my high school guidance counselor that I want to go to college.

And he tells me that the only of the two options that seemed plausible to me,

Because moving out and not having my mom being around my mother,

Right,

And working full time,

Like,

Well,

This is not,

I've been working since I was 10.

This is an overrated experience.

I would like to do something else.

This is overrated.

Trust me.

I like,

I could tell you some stories about that.

Um,

So I was like,

Okay,

What am I supposed to do?

And five people,

Uh,

Frank McKinney,

Grant Turner,

Charlene Turner,

James Kimbrough,

And,

And,

Uh,

Faye Kimbrough told me that I essentially told me I could do more with my life and gave me what I call today a little bit of what we,

What I frame as the starting five.

They gave me five people to help me point my life and guard my life and put me in the right direction.

Wow.

Okay.

I am like,

I know you said I can't go into the gate of the past or look over the gate of the past,

But I'm a little annoyed with that guidance counselor.

That is awful.

It is,

It is.

But,

But,

Uh,

I heard Stephen Colbert or something,

Say something very profound.

And when asked,

When he's asking about his,

His,

His life,

Cause he's had some things happen in his life that are very traumatic.

And he said,

I've had to learn to love the things I wish had not happened.

And I could not,

I,

I can't,

I can't say anything more profound than that.

That is,

That is life.

You have to learn to love.

If the guidance counselor had not told me that I was not college material,

He wouldn't have lit a fire up under my behind to stop getting C's.

It is no coincidence that my father decided to tell me something similarly at the same point.

And the,

The only of the options that I had that seemed plausible to me was the very one that the guidance counselor said I couldn't do.

Right.

It doesn't,

Like,

There's no coincidence that these five families,

These five people decided.

And then when I say like embrace me as their own,

I mean,

One of the people came to see my mother was around childhood was filled with what the CD calls,

CDC calls adverse child experiences.

I have eight of those 10 experiences and he came to my mother and said,

Listen,

If you all don't want him,

I'll take him.

I love him.

I'll take him.

His name was Frank,

Frank McKinney,

Uncle Frank.

So,

And then there's Charlene and Grant that because their last name was Turner and their daughter was my high school classmate,

People thought she and I were brothers and sisters.

So her mother was,

Was the business school teacher.

So I got to know her mother because,

You know,

We would walk upstairs and she'd introduced her to her mother.

So eventually she just went along with it and she became my mother.

And so then she would invite me to the house as just Michelle's brother.

And I met her father,

Grant,

And he would accept me as his son.

And then they would introduce me to their huge family.

So suddenly I had this huge family that there was connected and loved each other in a way that wasn't happening in my own home.

And then my friend,

James father was judge Kimbrough.

He was the most respected person in the community.

He's a guy that was at one time being considered for a federal appointment.

And he looked at me one afternoon at their home and he says,

Nate,

What are you going to do?

And I said,

I don't know.

I'm going to be a basketball player.

And he,

Matter of fact,

He's about five foot seven.

He just kind of looked at me and he said,

Hmm,

Yeah,

I don't,

I don't like,

I don't think so.

And I said,

Well,

Judge Kimbrough,

How did you become a judge?

And he told me,

He said,

And he said,

This is just like this.

I attended Fisk university and I attended John Marshall law school.

And in those,

In that,

Those few words,

He'd said to me everything I needed to know.

He said,

Nate,

You just got to get to one college and you need to do well enough.

And then you go to law school because he was the person that I'm,

I professionally,

I'm most respected.

So he's the reason in some respects that I became a lawyer and his wife,

Faye was,

Was our math or geometry teacher.

And so when I needed extra help with math,

I could ask her for help.

But if it hadn't been for those five people,

I would,

I would not have,

I would not be having this conversation with you today.

So that's a wrap on my conversation with Nathaniel Turner.

There's a really delightful Easter egg after the end of the outro where Nathaniel talks about how he met his wife.

It's a really funny story.

It's really charming.

And yeah,

Let's just say that I am two thumbs up for spicy women.

I think they make this world a more splendid place.

I need to thank him for appearing on the podcast and being a wonderful human being in general,

And also being willing to just laugh with me and have a really great and deep conversation.

I want to thank each and every one of you for listening to this podcast.

I think especially in these times,

Which appear so very dark,

It's important to have touchstones like this podcast that you can go back and say,

Oh yeah,

Remember that magical moment?

Oh yeah.

Remember that miracle?

Because those are the kinds of memories and listenings that we need right now to remind ourselves that even in the darkest of nights,

There is a glimmer of light always.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Nathaniel.

Hold those you love lightly.

I know each of us has people in their lives that they want to see succeed,

That they want to see go out into the world and make it a more beautiful place.

I think it's really hard if you have kids to let them go and trust that the universe is going to carry them.

But Nathaniel absolutely believes in the goodness of the world,

Absolutely believes in the intelligence and goodness in his son,

And is there to lift his son up.

You don't even necessarily have to be related to the people that you lift up.

But I think we're here,

Each and every one of us,

To be of service to others,

To advocate for others,

To lift other people up,

To have their backs.

And we need that more than ever.

Now,

In this new strange reality we're living in,

We need to have each other's backs.

We need to be there for each other.

Because when a tally is made of history,

These days and those who stood up for each other are going to be marked and noted and set down in the history books.

So have each other's backs.

Be there for each other,

Just like Nathaniel.

And I'll see you next week for the very next episode of the podcast.

And until then,

Know that I'm holding each and every one of you in my heart and praying for better days.