Thursday, February 08, 2007
Invisible Fredman
Reality Bites! “Sing sour grapes, they can laugh and stare, sing sour grapes, I don’t care.” John Prine
Sour Grapes- is rationalizing- a psychological defense mechanism- that argues what you didn’t get you didn’t want anyway. The opposite is Sweet Lemons a defense from reality that rationalizes you are glad you got what you deserved even if it is a terminal illness.
I remember a little boy down the block who made being grounded look so great my own kids begged to be grounded too and wanted me to get divorced so they could visit me on the weekends just like their broken home buddies visited their whacky daddies.
I always told my high school students to develop a firm and realistic grasp of their own identity and to be o.k. with it because there are times in life when you’re feeling pretty damn good about yourself when suddenly and without warning someone will just chop you off at the knees
It happened to me yesterday one knee at a time. The medical and anterior ligaments just ripped loose. And I went sour and sweet because I don’t care and in fact enjoy exclusion from the ring of honor almost as much as inclusion into the phylum off assholes.
I had come from the gym where one guy told me how much he enjoyed a feature I wrote and told me ”You are such a great writer” then another guy came up and shook my hand and thanked me for starting a Polar Bear Club that has helped raise 3.5 million dollars for Delaware Special Olympics.
I was feeling pretty damned special myself as I walked into my Cape Gazette office and checked my hard copy mail.
There was a letter written by a guy I had labeled the Singing Custodian because he sang the National Anthem before an away wrestling match in rural Laurel home of the nation’s largest Watermelon Auction.
This letter sounded like it was written by Ernest Hemingway and by the end had me agreeing that yes, in fact, I was a classless asshole, and I rationalized that it was all good for business and that I didn’t care anyway.
Then there was the phone call to a guy I deeply respect from the world of sports, a guy who is educated and Christian and feels no need for diplomacy.
He asked if I knew I had been nominated for the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame then said the problem was that no one on the Board of Directors had ever heard of me and that my nomination didn’t crack the top 30-he inferred that it was unlikely it ever would-then asked if I would like to be on the Board of Directors but first I’d have to fill out the online membership form and have my credit card debited 40 dollars?
I enjoy being outside the circle and my family would take no solace or joy if I’m ever put into a sports mausoleum dead or alive.
“Nobody ever heard of me” kept rattling inside my noggin. A state that’s 90 miles long and 50 miles wide and no one ever heard of me, well actually, most never did ,which makes me want to do what? Defend my legitimacy as Hall of Fame caliber guy or maybe run down some networked jocks already in the Hall as unworthy?
It is all funny really, no really! Everyday on my life has been a Hall of Fame experience. I have been blessed with family and friends, been uncontained,unrestrained and defamed for damn good reasons. My grandmother once told me, ”One man’s asshole is another man’s role model.” Then my Aunt Jenny, a Colored woman and my grandfather’s girl friend added “You ain’t nobody, we ain’t nobody, nobody is anybody but the lord loves everybody.”
With a philosophical foundation so strong how could I be anything but lowdown and almost level to the ground?
Perhaps you’ve heard of me?
Freddogg
I always told my high school students to develop a firm and realistic grasp of their own identity and to be o.k. with it because there are times in life when you’re feeling pretty damn good about yourself when suddenly and without warning someone will just chop you off at the knees
It happened to me yesterday one knee at a time. The medical and anterior ligaments just ripped loose. And I went sour and sweet because I don’t care and in fact enjoy exclusion from the ring of honor almost as much as inclusion into the phylum off assholes.
I had come from the gym where one guy told me how much he enjoyed a feature I wrote and told me ”You are such a great writer” then another guy came up and shook my hand and thanked me for starting a Polar Bear Club that has helped raise 3.5 million dollars for Delaware Special Olympics.
I was feeling pretty damned special myself as I walked into my Cape Gazette office and checked my hard copy mail.
There was a letter written by a guy I had labeled the Singing Custodian because he sang the National Anthem before an away wrestling match in rural Laurel home of the nation’s largest Watermelon Auction.
This letter sounded like it was written by Ernest Hemingway and by the end had me agreeing that yes, in fact, I was a classless asshole, and I rationalized that it was all good for business and that I didn’t care anyway.
Then there was the phone call to a guy I deeply respect from the world of sports, a guy who is educated and Christian and feels no need for diplomacy.
He asked if I knew I had been nominated for the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame then said the problem was that no one on the Board of Directors had ever heard of me and that my nomination didn’t crack the top 30-he inferred that it was unlikely it ever would-then asked if I would like to be on the Board of Directors but first I’d have to fill out the online membership form and have my credit card debited 40 dollars?
I enjoy being outside the circle and my family would take no solace or joy if I’m ever put into a sports mausoleum dead or alive.
“Nobody ever heard of me” kept rattling inside my noggin. A state that’s 90 miles long and 50 miles wide and no one ever heard of me, well actually, most never did ,which makes me want to do what? Defend my legitimacy as Hall of Fame caliber guy or maybe run down some networked jocks already in the Hall as unworthy?
It is all funny really, no really! Everyday on my life has been a Hall of Fame experience. I have been blessed with family and friends, been uncontained,unrestrained and defamed for damn good reasons. My grandmother once told me, ”One man’s asshole is another man’s role model.” Then my Aunt Jenny, a Colored woman and my grandfather’s girl friend added “You ain’t nobody, we ain’t nobody, nobody is anybody but the lord loves everybody.”
With a philosophical foundation so strong how could I be anything but lowdown and almost level to the ground?
Perhaps you’ve heard of me?
Freddogg
Comments:
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Freddogg,
Coming to terms with the fact that you are truly a "nobody" is kinda like waking up dead. The only difference is that dead is forever - or is it?.
Some people think that after we leave the womb we're like the pupa stage of the butterfly, (does that mean we're like the larval stage before we're born?) and that death is simply a transition. You have to admit, that would be nice unless, of course, the next stage is no fun at all.
You know, when you think about it, just about everything that improves has to go through a difficult transition, perhaps even failure. I think you said it something like, "I think it's healthy to get chopped down".
But human death (being the ultimate "chop down")might be a different story. Religions provide a variety of ways to think about what happens after death, but the answer is not in religion. The God that made and sustains the universe is too smart for that. He would never trust the truth to mere mortals, especially those that think they know more than Him.
So where is the answer? Ah, that is the important first question. If it is not with humans, then where is it? Where can it be found?
Keep lookin',
Friedrich Nietzsche
Coming to terms with the fact that you are truly a "nobody" is kinda like waking up dead. The only difference is that dead is forever - or is it?.
Some people think that after we leave the womb we're like the pupa stage of the butterfly, (does that mean we're like the larval stage before we're born?) and that death is simply a transition. You have to admit, that would be nice unless, of course, the next stage is no fun at all.
You know, when you think about it, just about everything that improves has to go through a difficult transition, perhaps even failure. I think you said it something like, "I think it's healthy to get chopped down".
But human death (being the ultimate "chop down")might be a different story. Religions provide a variety of ways to think about what happens after death, but the answer is not in religion. The God that made and sustains the universe is too smart for that. He would never trust the truth to mere mortals, especially those that think they know more than Him.
So where is the answer? Ah, that is the important first question. If it is not with humans, then where is it? Where can it be found?
Keep lookin',
Friedrich Nietzsche
# posted by 
: 6:48 AM
: 6:48 AM
My father wasted away to mS, died the same year as Pope Pius the Roman numeral X11.
I took solace that no one was any deader than anyone and that justice had been achieved and is always achieved and the beuty of that is all around us so eat drink and be mary if you want.
Keep rocking Friedrich and please stay dead or my thoery is shot
Friedrich Freddogg
I took solace that no one was any deader than anyone and that justice had been achieved and is always achieved and the beuty of that is all around us so eat drink and be mary if you want.
Keep rocking Friedrich and please stay dead or my thoery is shot
Friedrich Freddogg
Friedrich Freddogg,
That Nietzsche character is lookin' for love in all the wrong places. What would an old NFL linebacker know about stuff like that anyhow?
The answer is obvious to us all, but we don't want to admit it. We're all high on the drug of self-importance, and the "dealer" is only too happy to keep us supplied. We like the "fix", even though we know it can't last forever.
The answer, my friend, ain't blowin' in the wind. The answer ain't blowin' in the wind.
Bob Dylan
That Nietzsche character is lookin' for love in all the wrong places. What would an old NFL linebacker know about stuff like that anyhow?
The answer is obvious to us all, but we don't want to admit it. We're all high on the drug of self-importance, and the "dealer" is only too happy to keep us supplied. We like the "fix", even though we know it can't last forever.
The answer, my friend, ain't blowin' in the wind. The answer ain't blowin' in the wind.
Bob Dylan
# posted by : 7:34 AM
: 7:34 AM
But how many smooth flat roads must I four wheel down and what is the nFL linebacker reference?
Show yourself because I'm think if not now than used to be important guy.
No one knows better than I myself I'm by myself alone.
Gershwin
Show yourself because I'm think if not now than used to be important guy.
No one knows better than I myself I'm by myself alone.
Gershwin
I know who I am.I've stared at the sun and I am the man who likes changing from nothing to one. Leonard Cohen or was it Myron Cohen."Everybodys gotta be someplace"
freddogg,
You know the guy. He played for the 66 Packers, and he was in the Longest Yard. . . Nietzsche. I thought you knew all about football.
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You know the guy. He played for the 66 Packers, and he was in the Longest Yard. . . Nietzsche. I thought you knew all about football.
# posted by : 9:09 AM
: 9:09 AM << Home
