The SALT TALK with Jermine Alberty
The SALT TALK w/ Jermine Alberty is a podcast dedicated to having conversations of healing and recovery surrounding topics of mental health challenges, addictions, spirituality, and guest will talk about how their work serves, affirm, loves, and transform those they encounter. Join us for each episode as we get salty.
The SALT TALK with Jermine Alberty
The Gift of Family: Honest Conversations We Don’t Have Enough — Part II
Some stories don’t need a spotlight—they need a steady hand.
In Part II of this two-part series, Jermine Alberty sits down with his brother Jimmie Marks for an unfiltered conversation about childhood trauma, family fragmentation, and the slow, daily work of rebuilding love, trust, and identity. This episode builds on Part I’s interview with their father, Jimmie Jones, moving the story forward through a sibling lens shaped by shared wounds and different paths.
Together, they wrestle with nature versus nurture in real time—what was carried in their bones, what was poured into them, and what they chose to become. They reflect on a grandmother’s quiet rituals that modeled resilience, the inner war between rage and restraint, the challenges of reentry after incarceration, and the discipline of gentleness rooted in faith.
This is a conversation about healing without erasing, setting boundaries without abandoning love, and choosing purpose when bitterness would be easier. If you’re torn between who you were told you are and who you feel called to be, this episode is for you.
This is The SALT Talk with Jermine Alberty.
The SALT Talk with Jermine Alberty
Service. Affirmation. Love. Transformation.
Thank you for tuning in to The SALT Talk, where we inspire transformation through honest conversations about faith, healing, and purpose.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs encouragement today.
To learn more about the SALT Initiative or to book Rev. Alberty for training or speaking engagements, visit www.jerminealberty.com.
Until next time, remember:
Serve with humility, affirm with compassion, love with courage, and live a life of transformation.
And so get ready for another exciting, honest conversation. This is Jermaine Alberty and listening to the soft talk.
SPEAKER_03:Hello, buddy. This is Jermaine Alberty, and I am so excited about this conversation. It is so special to me because it's actually personal. It's rooted in family and in the journey of discovering who we are and how we become. And I'm honored to sit down with my brother. And may I want to welcome you here?
SPEAKER_02:Nice beard.
SPEAKER_03:Listen, we're going to talk about some childhood memories, a young adulthood, and the lessons we've learned sometimes the hard way and how those moments shape us as men. We're also going to look at the age-old conversation of nature versus nurture, which is a model developed by Sigmund Freud, which believed about the forces that shape our behavior and how we live experiences either when they're affirmed or they challenge that theory. So I want y'all to grab a notebook. I want you to grab some coffee, some tea, and we're going to get into it. So let's start off with our first conversation. I want to welcome you once again, and I'm glad we finally are getting a chance to have this conversation. Because it's been a long time cool.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, it has. Yes, it has. Real long time. Real long time.
SPEAKER_03:So let's start uh at the beginning. When you think about your childhood, what stands out most to you?
SPEAKER_04:Um stands out most to me did in my childhood is um, I guess the love. Um because then in my childhood, my love was like it was misplaced. It misplaced. You know, had me going in circles, you know, traveling from different family to family, which is my mother, my father, and grandmother, you know, so and all. So um it it was uh that was the thing stood out because of, you know, urban molestation, stuff like that. So it really tainted my love and misplaced it to where it was misconstrued. It really was.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, wow. I tell you, what's so very interesting is that some folks grew up in the same family environments, right? And sometimes end up living so many different lives. Right, right, right. I think also what is so interesting is the patterns that happen in families. I can recall being uh a young, I I don't know if I was like seven years old. Um, I want to say somewhere around that that uh age, but I was uh at my grandmother's house, and one of the neighbors touching me in an inappropriate way.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And of course I ran, told my family, there was this big uproar. But that right there was uh a form of molestation being touched in an appropriate way. And so I thought it's so very interesting how you had a similar experience, I had a similar experience, and didn't even know it. Exactly, and it is the name, right? Yeah, yeah, didn't even know. I mean, I think it's the first time you're hearing this story. Um, you know, so having that kind of shared experience and not even knowing it, and then it does shape you and it shapes kind of how you think about yourself and uh why do I protect me from this? It all those different areas. And so let me ask this question. For I believe that early childhood experiences, ones we just talked about, set the foundation for adult behavior. So looking back, do you see any connection between how that early experience uh has impacted the man you are now? Talk about that loving, knowing what love is, how to love properly.
SPEAKER_04:Um yes, I mean from that experience, it um I'm gonna put it like this dealing with that experience, um it has tainted in some ways, dealing with my love. You know, uh when it comes to family, because, you know, dealing with the years I've been, you know, as grown to a man now, I've seen how uh love is transformed through family and is not as loyal or loving as it's supposed to be. So uh by me going through the changes, you know, through life and how it's treated, or it it um I can say it hurt it hurts, yeah. But at the same time, I always had a it was always a person on that side of me, you know, Dorothy Mouse, his grandmother. Um her love is the one that kept me, you know, firm. You know, not you know, uh go all the way to a negative person, you know, not to be bitter from how you know I'm treated and stuff like that. So because, you know, it it's it it will it will it will uh it can change a person. Yeah. So uh and that's how you have uh uh serial killers, rapers, psychopathic, you know, murderers, you know, that's how you have those type of people because of dealing with their childhood, right? The look, you know what I'm saying, the attention, you know, they wasn't receiving and it was misplaced. Yeah. So did it with me, and it and now I fit in the same category because I could have used this and became bitter, you know. Absolutely. Stuff like that. But at the same time, I I I still had that hope. I still had that, you know, that it's the love is still real, you know, it's out there, you know, and it uh it just it just can't be just gone like that, you know. And it's just hard to find, really, you know, because boy, people is people's love is is is different in different people's eyes. They see love in different ways.
SPEAKER_03:So I I I I'm glad you gave tribute to our our grandma, Dorothy Dorothy Jones Moss. Yes, most definitely uh there was a love. I mean I love being around my grandma. What's interesting is every family has a rhythm, it's dynamics, it's unwritten rules. What do you feel our family gave you, whether through nature or nurture, that became a strength? We talked about a little bit, grandma's love, but anything else that kind of strengthen you?
SPEAKER_04:Um, strengthened me, um I mean I I really just can't say I guess just uh and to believe. I mean, I guess have faith. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I I that's the only thing I could I can really just see because without faith and having you know having the hope that that love is out there, and you know, that it's it's it's kind of it's kind of undescribable to display. You know, it really is. Because like I I've been through so much, you know, uh, you know, been locked up 23 years. Uh and that's where I grew up at. I became a man there. So um it's really kind of hard, you know, because you know, when you uh in a place like that, that's out of, you know, it's another whole different continent, you know. So you have to really get on the ship to go come see us, you know what I'm saying? Come see a prisoner. Uh so when you detach from family, keep in mind 23 years, a lot of things happen 23 years. Uh different moods, people dying, church born, you know, you know, everything. Growing up to be where you at, you know, because you gotta keep in mind, look, I've been gone from you 23 years, you know what I'm saying? And guess what? And all that reality I have to learn you all over again, also. You know, uh, because for one, I know how uh patterns change, characters change, you know what I'm saying? Um and one thing I can say, you all you still the same. You still the same. Yeah, you ain't changed. You ain't changed. I love that. You know what I'm saying? I love that about you, you know what I'm saying? Um and that's why I'm always, you know, I'm always there to hear you, you know what I'm saying? Speak to you, can't wait to, you know, be around you. Because uh, yeah, you you're the same, you know, and that's the type of people I like to be around the same, you know. The um, because people have intentions, you know, and even family members. You know, and and and and since I've been out, guess what? Family is more uh more of a downfall than anything. And it's and it's crazy to say that, but it is, you know. Uh it's only very few, very few minority family members that's that's real. You are an exception, you know, top of the list, and I'm just being honest. Uh uh Little Bro Geronimo, yeah, it's just only very few. It ain't much, you know, and it's sad, you know what I'm saying, be carrying the same bloodline.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And the love is not adequate, it's not coinciding, it ain't parallel. It it makes no sense, you know. It's just sad. It's sad.
SPEAKER_03:Freud talks about the internal term of war, our desires, our conscience, and the reality around us. Do you feel that kind of internal conflict in right now in you sometimes? That internal conflict of kind of what's in you, what you don't want to be, and all the time.
SPEAKER_04:All the time. And I and I and I and I have to, and I have to keep myself at an elevated state to keep myself calm, you know, happy. Uh trying to I try my best to keep myself being explosive because I never know what that explosive leads to because of so much that's built up, you know. And at the same time, I know I have the hat, I got that other have it wants to explode. It just wants to be Tasmania Devil. But at the same time, I'm like, that's that's not the way, you know, because I know that's destruction. You know, that's that's total destruction. There is ain't no uh life from that, you know, when I go that way. Um and and by me doing that, you know, I I tend to my music, you know, uh, you know, uh tend to my wife, you know. Um glad that I have my wife because uh she she pulls me, you know, she pulls me streams and link, hey, come back, you know what I'm saying? That fishing line. Hey, come back here. You know what I'm saying? Hey, don't go out there. Don't don't go too far, you know what I'm saying? You already know it's out there. Um and, you know, a I'm a stubborn, you know. Sometimes I still try to go out there, but at the same time, I listen to her. Uh, and I'm glad she's beside me. Uh and and guess what? That's something I've been eating all my life because I've been through, like, I ain't gonna lie, you were, you know, that brother I looked up to, I looked up to, and I still look up to, that you know, I always wanted to be around you, you know what I'm saying? But it was only spurts. That's that's how it was, and it was and it was confusing because I'm like, damn, around love, I'm somebody that really loved me, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying, willing the guy meet, you know, uh, and I never could get that. You know, it was hard for me to get that. And it was um and it was conflicted. So that's the reason why, you know, certain choices I made in life in the way it did. You know, being, you know, going to the other side, then that other man come out. So, yeah. Um yeah, yeah, it's it's hard. It's hard to contain that man, but at the same time, you have to be in a positive environment. You know, the only way you can tame is be in a positive environment. Keep yourself around negative people. You know, if uh you know there's something that's negative coming around, hey, move around from there because guess what? You know there's a possibility that guess what? You might get the negative feedback. It's a possibility. You never know. Um, and guess what? Energy. Deal with that negative energy, you know, uh demons, whatever you want, whether you're spiritual or individualized, it's there. You know what I'm saying? It's always there. It's around you 24 sep. You know what I'm saying? You got to fight it. You know what I'm saying? You have to be uh know yourself, know your know your will. You know, if you don't know that, you know, hey, you catalogs, you know what I'm saying? Just just hope that you and prayerfully that you contain yourself and uh pick the right side, really.
SPEAKER_03:One of the things you talked about is this whole thing of not allowing people's negative influences to negative influence.
SPEAKER_04:That's good.
SPEAKER_03:Listen, one thing I know about you is that you've always had a resilience. You know, it's it's been a quiet strength. And so where do you think that comes from? That that resilience? Is it something that you think is in you by nature or something that was poured into you by nurse that that that quiet strength? Because it's there.
SPEAKER_04:Dorothy Miles, Dorothy Jones Miles, and that hey, that's because she was quiet.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:She was quiet, she humble, she, you know what I'm saying? She didn't have to yell, she didn't, none of that. You know, so automatically that's and that's where I learned that from. That's that's who I seen. You know, that's that's who kept man. It's I hate, I'm oh my god. But it's that's who kept me real tall. That's who kept me really just, you know, uh uh seeing that, you know, said is is I'm gonna have a better outcome. Um it's gonna be all right.
SPEAKER_03:What I'm hearing you say is that it was her nurture in you poured into you that gave you that hunt. It was something that was done quietly, not with many words, but just by drowned.
SPEAKER_04:Anytime I ran away, anytime I ran away, I'm coming to the house, two o'clock in the morning, one or thirty in the morning. Guess what? She ain't said nothing. Opened the door, grabbed a pillow, blanket. She ain't said nothing. Ain't had no words, no nothing. Off mat up in the morning, 5, 4:30 in the morning, cooking breakfast, smelling bacon eggs, you know, harmony. Uh grandpa, I'm just being real. That's that's what it was. So guess what? And guess what? She still never questioned. She understood, you know what I'm saying? She knew what I was going through because guess what? I was going through it through birth. You gotta keep in mind, grandma was fighting for me since birth, you know. Did it between my mother and her and my auntie. So, Aunt Kate, you know, rest in peace, you know. And that's what kept me, you know. And boy, I'm really going tears, you know what I'm saying? Because it it really was. That was the only love that was there. And and keep in mind that I was a young child, and when they was all that tussling uh with them when they was grown, you know. So I never seen that, but at the same time, I feel it. Yeah, or I understand, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you you said you said rest in peace to uh Wanda K. Sherman. Now, now that's the married name, Wanda K. Sherman.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You knew her. We knew her for a long time. It was Wanda K. Joe. Listen, I love that woman so much. Um, man. We're gonna stop talking about that because we we might this podcast may end real quickly. We don't we go down that path. Because Gina, I'm totally reading you. That's the beautiful thing about having caring adults in our lives. And that's that's what I try to do. I try to be that that caring adult in the life of young people, uh, young adults, even adults, because uh people talked about when uh our Auntie Kay passed away. I heard stories say, man, I could call Wanda and talk to her, she was just listening, and she being just providing courage and words. She always had the right thing to say. I'm listening to this. I'm thinking, right? Man, that's where that comes from.
SPEAKER_04:That's where that guess what? And I've never heard of it. It's just a thing.
SPEAKER_03:I've been oh man, oh yeah. Tell me, tell me what would you say is the most important lesson that your adulthood has taught you.
SPEAKER_04:My adulthood has taught me to be patient, be humble, be forgiving, be strong, and and not to be proud. You know, um, yeah, it you know, yeah, my doodle tell me all that because man, I'm you know, right now, you know, like I say, been like the 23 years coming out. I've been out since October 1st, 2021. Uh it's 2000, it's November 25th, 2025. So let you know, I hey, kept myself out and I'm not going back in. Uh and dealing with that, it's taught me a lot because I'm learned about people. And I learned that uh it you got to survive and and and and take care of what's around you that's for you. You know, uh to be if a person ain't for you, or you know, or even just or or or or uh accomplishing anything, you know what I'm saying, or being stagnated in life, you gotta move around. Uh what'd you say, baby? Not a line. Perfect. Not a line. Um because um this world is is is and the Bible even says it, it did it with the family. Everything will, you know, go to chaos. You know what I'm saying? Hey, your mother gets mother, father gets father, I mean your father gets son, mother gets. Daughter, stuff like that. It's happening. We see this, and guess what? It's getting worse and worse by the day. So I uh I'm grateful to still be alive, as you say, to be see the years I'm seeing. Uh and at the same time, deal with my family that I've developed. I want better for us. Uh, and at the same time, I use this my adulthood. I'm still crawling. Still. Because you know, like you say, I've been taken away since I was a teenager. So really, I really had the adulthood that I supposed to have as responsibilities, you know, of having a house, you know, say maintaining a job, like I supposed to uh, you know, and you know, getting all the special uh uh uh uh adult uh perks that we supposed to have, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:So we listen, we've talked about childhood, we've talked about um, you know, uh your young adult clothes. Most of those years spent in in prison, you know. In prison. Uh in prison. And so you went in at how old?
SPEAKER_04:I went at 17.
SPEAKER_03:17. Came out how old?
SPEAKER_04:I came out first at 25.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And went back before my birthday. Yeah. So went back and came out at 41.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. Wow.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:So 17, I decided 1741. Yeah. We know it was there. I don't count the 10 months. Yeah, that you was literally 41. Yeah. Yeah, that um, yeah, that's like a that's a that's a that's a word release. That's a yeah. That was a partlow.
SPEAKER_03:And so I I'm curious about the future and the hope you have. So, what I want to ask you is this tell me what is something that you're working on right now that gives you hope. You s you send me music all the time to talk to me.
SPEAKER_04:Oh always. You about to go down. Um, well, automatically, my passion for music is there. And and that's what I want to bring out. Uh, passion for music. Uh right now I have a uh LLC started with food on the hustle.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh me and my wife. Um, so I'm trying to get that started up. Um, we both trying to get this started up. And really my marriage. Yeah. That's uh main three things that then right now that's that's got me real hopeful because I see, you know, I see myself, you know, I'm I'm I see myself building an empire. Like I said, uh before I'm 50, yeah, I'm being financially stable. Okay. I'm I'm counting on that, you know, and and guess what? And I'm pushing and I'm pushing forward towards that. And and that's what I'm doing. I'm setting plays. Um and me and my wife, uh, both of us with the same intellect, uh, with the same, we're parallel. We we we're ambitioned to push towards that because we, you know, we're tired, you know. I'm tired, you know. Uh, and guess what? It's time, it's it's overdue, you know. I'm uh I'm ready for my blessings. I'm I've been through so much, you know. Uh I've I've took so much, I've suffered, I've regret, uh, and I've, you know, and like I say, I really I I I truly believe I pay my dues. Uh uh and I'm ready to receive the blessings, you know, receive them, you know, and uh and because I have, you know, I want to start a vote for uh young people, you know, uh give people, you know, because I tattoo. Uh I want to start vote. I want to start a vocational trade for young people because that's not out here. Uh people's not, you know, it's a lot of things I want to do. I have so much things to do. I'm multi-talented, you know, from painting to, you know, building houses to carpentry. I I can do everything. You know, and at the same time, I'm type person. I dance, I draw, I write everything. I have it all. There ain't wrong with me learning, and I'm willing to learn. So, you know, and that's how I am, and I'm willing to, and as I say, um, it's it's it's no reason for nobody to be broke out here. You know what I'm saying? Uh, you know, there's plenty of ways to make money. Person ain't gotta steal, healed or sell dope, none of that to make money. Man, so much money out here to get it's possible. Let me say every day.
SPEAKER_03:Let me ask you two more questions. Two more questions.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:First question What does healing look like for you as you continue your journey? What does healing look like?
SPEAKER_04:You've kind of it looks beautiful to me.
SPEAKER_03:It looks beautiful.
SPEAKER_04:It looks beautiful, it looks beautiful because I've been scarred.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I've been scarred, torn, and guess what? To this day I'm still getting torn.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Piece by piece, shredded, you know. But at the same time, I have love. Yeah my that love is the only thing that keeps me from tearing apart, from explode, turn into task with me endeavor.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's the only thing. Love. And it's just and that and that and that's it. Without love, hey, I'd be lost.
SPEAKER_02:Real real talk. And you can speak. Love the only thing that keeps me hope. Love, love keeps me hope. Love is the only thing.
SPEAKER_03:If you can speak to someone uh listening who is struggling between who they were raised to be and who they feel called to be, what wisdom would you give them?
SPEAKER_04:Repeat that one more time.
SPEAKER_03:If you can speak to someone listening who is struggling between who they were raised to be, okay, who they feel called to be, okay, what wisdom would you give them? Because you know how like when people are speaking to our lives that we're not gonna be nothing, speaking to our lives, like the no griddaddy, they speak all things in our lives, right?
SPEAKER_04:And they heard it on my life. Right, and they heard it all my life. And I'm gonna tell you something. That would be like this for whoever's listening. Yeah, when a person is speaking negative, speaking down, speaking against you, speaking ill, I'm talking about to where it kills you. Guess what? Use it as your strength. That I use that's my fuel, that's my strength. Because all my life, person, I will be nothing. You'll be a crackhead, just like your daddy. You know what I'm saying? You'll be nothing. You you you'll never grow to be nothing. But I've accomplished so many things since I've been out. You know what I'm saying? I've I've already accomplished, I've had my own art exhibit. I missed, I missed it, but I had the opportunity, and I got that since I've been out. I I ran motels, I've been a manager of motels and never did this in my life. You see what I'm saying? I've been to college, I got my GD. Guess what? I did things that the same person who said that I would not be amount to nothing. Guess what? GED. Been to college. Uh, and guess what? And I'm gonna continue to go forward. My music, I got music that that is loved in uh in everywhere. Nigeria, Cambodia, all over the world.
SPEAKER_03:Through ramping Let me say these say these words that many men don't say to one another sometimes, but I'll say these words, and these words I think are so very important, and that is I'm proud of you.
SPEAKER_04:And I love you. Thank you. And I love you too, and I'm proud of you too, bro. Because guess what? You're listening you're really the main thing that really kept another thing that kept me pushing because one, you gotta keep in mind, you were the youngest preacher in Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 21.
SPEAKER_03:Actually 16. Oh, see, didn't know that. This is big what's funny about that is I preached my first sermon November 29th, 1992.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:I was 16 years old, and it'll be 33 years this November 29th, 2025. 33 years.
SPEAKER_04:And guess what? Well, I was at in 1992, November 29th.
SPEAKER_03:Where is that at?
SPEAKER_04:I just got turned, I just got admitted in to FAC, Family Attention Center. Wow. On my birthday.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:November 24th.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:I was admitted in to the Family Attention Center on my birthday. They were done with me, got rid of me. 1992. That was my birthday present, as a matter of fact. 1992, November 24th. Wow. Yes, that was the birthday present. A gift for only you and only you. Jamar Draymore, you can't have that this gift. This is only for Jimmy. Yes. 1992. So that's the reason why I never knew. Because that's the year. I was gone.
SPEAKER_03:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, sir. Like well, I've been through, I've been through it all by.
SPEAKER_03:See, I I was I was trying to move, I was trying to move to a conclusion of the episode. Go ahead and go we'll see this till we're talking. No, no, no. This is this is part two. This this is how we have conversations, and we never got the phone because they never keep talking over. Hey, hey, it's gonna, hey boy, I got a book. Listen, I can write a book. There is a book in you, and I'm ready to read it. Yes, I might help you write that. I'm ready to release it. I'm gonna help you write a book. Listen, listen, man. I want to thank you for this conversation. I want to thank you for your honesty, your heart, your story. And this journey shows that family is more than history. It's living, it's breathing testimony of growth, and you are living proof of how nature gives us our starting ingredients, and nature shapes the recipe. And so, to my listener, I want you to know remember, transformation is always possible. Your past informs you, but it does not imprison you, and you have the power to make choices that create a future that you can shape. That you do, you can you can do it. Listen, I want to thank you all for listening and stay tuned for our next episode.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, sir. Thank you.
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