Beech Tree News Network

When Tyler Perry was a child, he was routinely beaten by a father, who would then drop to his knees in prayer and crawl into bed to sleep.  His mother was present but she was too afraid to stand up for her son.  After one extreme beating with an electrical cord, Tyler ran from his house and down the block to his aunt and uncle.  Tyler’s skin had literally been ripped to pieces. 
    When his aunt saw what had been done to her young nephew, she never hesitated.  She got her pistol, walked into the sleeping man’s house and put the gun right up against his temple.  Tyler’s uncle was on her heels and finally convinced his wife to put the gun down.  As she did, she turned to Tyler’s mom and said, “Wherever you go, you take this boy with you.  Don’t leave him with that crazy MF!” (OPRAH.com) and behold, Madea was born.
    For those of you who aren’t familiar with Tyler Perry and his alter ego, Madea, treat yourself to one of the movies featuring her: “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” or “Madea’s Family Reunion” or “Madea’s Witness Protection” are just a few of my favorites. 
    Tyler Perry is one of those people who probably never should have made it to adulthood, but he did, and the same spirit that got him through all of those beatings also carried him through failure after failure.  From 1992 until 1998, Perry staged his first play, “I know I’ve Been Changed,” once a year, and the play failed every time.  Finally in March of 1998, when Tyler Perry was 27 years old, the play became a success.  “I don’t think dreams die,” he said, “I think people give up.  I think it gets too hard.”
    For me, one of the most important things Tyler Perry ever said was when he told Oprah Winfrey, “I think about the child I was, the tremendous debt I owe him now.  There wasn’t anybody there to protect him or make sure he was okay, but he made it through…I feel like he had to endure so much so that I could be here” (OPRAH.com).
    When I read that, I understood the little girl I had been and sometimes still am—I call her the little girl who will not be silenced.  I didn’t go through half of what Tyler Perry endured as a child, but I had my own battles.  You did too, and we need to be patient with that little girl and little boy who sometimes still stick their heads out from under the covers and say, “I’m still here and I’m still hurting.”
    I want to end this column with Madea’s version of the Christmas Story:
        “Little baby Jesus was bornt to the Virgin Mary…J. Blige.  As Mary was on tour, she met this man name Joe…and he was in love with her.  And she said, “Joe, I am nowest with a childest and his Holiest is come upon me and I’m goin to have a babyest.  And they didn’t know what to do, so he went on stage with her and they were expectin the holy chile.  And the Bible says in second Deutironimo, when He came to the earth, He came through the virgin…and, and she was there and they was tryin to find somewhere to have the baby.  But they kept goin to all these hotels and wouldn’t none of them let them in.  Marriott shut the door!  Hilton shut the door!  They tried to get to the Ritz Carlton, but they said, ‘You don’t belong here.’  Everywhere they went they was put out.  Even at Motel 6, they didn’t even leave the light on for her, and she was in the dark!  There was Mary bout to have that baby, so she sat there at a bus stop, and lot of buses passed by, and none of them would stop and pick her up and take her to the holy city of Birmingham.  And as she set there, she went into laborer, and as she started laboring, a mangy dog walked up beside her.  See God’ll send you a dog when you need it, even if you don’t…And as she set there, she had that baby.  He came next to that mangy dog.  And that’s why they say he was born in a mangy.  Hallelujah!  Let the Lord use ya!  Okay, that’s the story of the baby Jesus.  I’m glad I went to Sunday school.”  (From Tyler Perry’s “A Madea Christmas”)