Monday, February 27, 2012

"Anything you want is possible"- Tyler Perry


 Have you watched any Tyler Perry movies? Do you know “Medea”?  If you haven’t, this week’s story will still be inspiring, but you have got to go see some of his movies and play’s there awesome!
This week’s blog is not just about a man but  a story of three  amazing people and how their journey from dream to reality meet up on the same path by a an outrageous act of kindness.

I had the incredible fortune of having this story come straight from the sources mouth when my
 Father-in law met them at Opryland hotel.
Tamela Mann-also known as Cora Simmons
David Mann – also known as Leroy Brown
Star in “Meet the Browns” as father and daughter but in reality are husband and wife. But they weren’t always stars.
Sitting on a bench at the Opryland hotel Tamela recounted the years before their fame.
“It wasn’t but a few years ago when my husband and I were so poor we couldn’t pay attention,” she said shaking her head with a smile.
“We were on welfare and still not able to make the bills so we were forced to live in our station wagon that had no heat in it and since we had no address, we had no welfare coming in either.
 We were at rock bottom."
Tamela’s husband David and she have always worked together professionally ,Both seeking a career in acting as well as singing, and as everyone knows both music and acting can be fest or famine and they were facing the famine.
Tamela said they had stayed in the station wagon for many months when a lady at their little church offered them to stay in one of her homes. Of course they couldn’t afford to turn the water on or the electric but “it was a place to lay their heads at night” she said.
 Their little church also took up an offering and they took the hundred dollers and went to a little ma and pa dinner that was selling takeout meals for five dollars. They would eat once a day, and they shared that one meal, trying to make the money last so they would be able to eat off the hundred dollars for a while.

Meanwhile another dreamer was about to cross their path that was facing failure.  He was trying to produce a play that would draw a crowd and sell out. Disappointed yet determined, Perry had continued to work odd jobs while reworking the show. He had staged the show in several cities, but success still eluded him. Broke, Perry was living out of his car. "Can you imagine a six-foot-five man sleeping in a Geo Metro?" Tamela asked.
  One day Tamela was walking to the little restaurant to get her and David’s food for the day. She noticed a man sitting outside the restaurant and heard a voice inside her saying, “feed him”. She thought to herself, “if I feed him my husband and I won’t eat today”.  As she approached him she looked down at him and said, “are you hungry?
The man said no, I’m fine but thank you.”
 She said, “Are you sure? Have you eaten today?”
 The gentleman said, “Really I’m ok.”
Tamela said, “ok then” and walked in the restaurant.  But when she walked out with her meal she bent down and handed it to the man.
“Here” she said, “I want you to have this.”  The guy smiled big and said thank you, hesitantly taking the meal.
“Do you have a place to stay?” she asked. After finding out that he was living in his car she invited him to come and visit her and her husband. “I don’t know why I did” she said, “We didn’t have anything ourselves but that voice inside me was screaming help this man.”
Then she proceeded to say “do you know who that homeless man was?”(I literally got chills when I heard this)
It was Tyler Perry- but you don’t know him as a homeless man struggling to turn his scripts into plays. You will know him as the highly respected well-known writer, producer and actor who’s worth over a billion dollars. And he is the man that launched David and mines dream careers as actors/singers!
 Soon Perry, Tamela, and David were performing to sellout crowds and the musical was moved to a larger theater. After so many years of hard work, Tyler finally earned critical acclaim as well as commercial success. His story is so much deeper than this little bit that I have shared with you today. And it is portrayed in the movies, films and TV series that are so much more than just a “show”.

These days you will find Tamela and her husband David inspiring others and living their dreams out on the hit TV show meet the browns. Written and produced by Tyler Perry.  When the series premiered on January 7, 2009, it received a viewership of 4,027,000 viewers. In March 2010, Meet the Browns became TBS's #1 sitcom having a viewership of 2.3 million and among adults 18-49 having 1.2 million. In October 2010, the show continued to be TBS's #1 and #2 sitcom telecasts with an audience of 1.2 to 1.4 million among adults 18-49.
Their friend Tyler Perry is now a Billionaire, yes with a capitol B! With so many accomplishments in the field of writing, producing and acting that I literally don’t have the time to share it all with you. But I will share a link to his bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Perry .

Some of his top achievements are among my favorite movies and shows.And I am excited to see his new movie that is in theaters now called "Good Deeds" which is based on his life.NowI could go on and on about Perry's accomplishments But I know that Tyler Perry is the type of man that would be more honored with me sharing with you his acts of kindness than his achievement’s (although I do hope, if you are not familiar with him that you will click on the link I provided and read his bio from early life as an abused child to his fame he is truly and inspiration)

So here is one of the many acts of kindness he has forwarded from his own encounter with an outrages act of kindness. On July 20, 2009, Perry sponsored 65 children from a Philadelphia day camp to go to Walt Disney world, after reading that a suburban swim club had shunned them. Perry wrote on his website, "I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them."

I hope you have a wonderful week and maybe just maybe I’ll be writing your story of dream to reality.
Each day we are one step closer. Who knows, maybe your dream will meet up with reality by a simple act of kindness. I hope this blog will encourage you to keep moving forward because- “you can and you will be all that you dream to be!”