It's all about 'The Benjamin'

      There's a line from a song by Sean Combs that said,"It's all about the Benjamins."  And P.Diddy knows much of what he speaks. He has lived his life true to this theme. It is all about the cash.
      Look at just about anything in modern life. Whether it is professional sports, politics, business, or much of social networking. Follow the cash and you will find there what most of us call 'success.' We all love a winner, and the money trail sways like a conga line going daily to whatever champion has designated this or that as 'today's pot of gold.' We market what may be, and send our money to what we hope is. Can it be any other way in modern life and 'succeed?' Probably not. But the market is not a god, and shouldn't be deified as such. It's an idea. And it is an idea that morphs like any other idea .It is no constant that allows us to calibrate our path to true north. The market can only bear what there is, not what we hope there is. And that is just the way it is. It is not so much about hope itself. It is more about what we see as being hope-worthy. Our dreams are not to discarded or set under a bushel basket. The children's Sunday school song that shouts joyfully," this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine," is good for our collective souls.
    But many times our dreams don't want the burden of truth. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, " You are entitled to have your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts." But here we are. Up against a mighty wall of denial that we have built ourselves, wondering how we can get around it.
    If our success in life is predicated on our humanity itself as being an efficient marketing device, then I propose that we are in big trouble.The idea of marketing everything, from church attendance rates to the perception of how likely a terrorist attack will occur, to the fear that some Emir in the middle east will have a bad hair is no way to solve our big problems when they arise. They seem to be more about pretending that these issues don't even exist. We now live in very big world . Maybe it will takes more than a Burkeian shift to fundamentally alter our approach to our problem as a people to make a difference.Is there a bomb thrower in the house? Is Oliver Cromwell available to heal our nation as the Tea Party desires? Let's hold that bomb for a moment, please.

   Benjamin Franklin was the probably the  coolest of all the founding fathers. Maybe he and his 'Poor Richard' have something to say about our dilemma.. Franklin was America's original Renaissance Man. He was many things, including an opportunistic marketer when the situation called for it. But he always saw the fullness of his life and that of his peers. I wonder if we are as wise. The idea that he would see himself as chattel to be marketed by himself or others to the exclusion of his humanity would be foreign to Poor Richard or Silence Dogood.  But we seem to happily swim in this concept every day. Maybe to the point where we miss our selves in the process. Our humanity needs to be tied to something much more than a successful marketing campaign. Ben was many thing. But he wasn't a commodity  And he didn't look at other men and women as such. Maybe that is where we should start.
   The market is a great tool. Let's not make that tool a great big hammer. Maybe it is better seen as a mirror. We all know that mirrors can be a pain, especially when looked into first thing in the morning. But look we must. Let's hope that all we see there is more than simply Green.

The Life we have Chosen

Hyman Roth at his Best from Godfather II 

  I'm not saying anything new when I bring up the idea that Mobster movies have become the new Westerns of today. Just as the Westerns of yesterday could be sagas, as in "Lonesome Dove", or quickie thrillers like "The Lone Ranger", mobster shows are a vehicle that will bring an audience to whatever story you may wish to spin. For many reasons these violent personas with their madonna-whore complexes and their false Omerta code of honor have become the car wreck scenes of today that we just can't take our eyes off of. It can be fascinating stuff. We get to live vicariously through these dark angels as they momentarily pass us by.

"I'd give 4 million just to piss without it hurting."

   My old buddy Hyman Roth of the Godfather saga had that great line in Godfather II stating that "this is the business we have chosen" in response to Michael Corleone's inquiry into his attempted assassination. In one sense he was stating the obvious, but in my world, where everything is the same , just different, I see another meaning.
I wanted to grow up to be a left handed starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. I thought, "How cool would that be? Pitch every fifth day for a lot of cash and get to sit in the dugout the other four days with my buddies, chewing bubble gum or spitting sunflower seeds on the dugout floor. Nobody will make me clean up the mess, and a couple times a year I will set someone's shoes on fire while they are in them, or put Ben-Gay into someone's jock strap. When you are a kid, how could you ever dream up a better life? So I chose to do this. But there was a problem right from the beginning. I am right handed. So that didn't work out too well for me.
   I could continue this self digression, but the point I want to make is this; ' Do we really choose as freely as we assume? I mean, I never imagined I would be where I am right here, right now when I was making plans for my life. I am no end unto myself that is for sure. My guess is that none of us are. Some folks are just better at fooling themselves. Bernie Madoff? Master ? Tiger Woods? The Man? Maybe. But as a jokester who is always looking for an opportunity to lay a zinger on someone, this type of illusory gimmick that humans have nurtured about themselves seems to be the perfect vehicle for pulling the rug out from under someone. So I think that Hyman Roth was  as wrong as he was right. After all , he didn't plan to be assassinated in that Miami airport either. Yes, we make choices. We are constantly choosing between this or that. But it may be better to keep a good slice of Humble Pie near us at all times as we preen over our free will in action. A piece of that pie  surely must taste better that what Bernie Madoff is eating today.

Rene Descartes V. Forrest Gump

   I know that it's a stretch to try to compare the a 16th century French philosopher with a movie character from 1996. But let me try anyhow.
   Descartes rocked the world of his time with a statement that only a Frenchman could pull off and still be taken seriously, " I think, therefore I am." But Forrest Gump reportedly said something quite the same, but completely different. In a scene cut from the theatrical release of his movie, Gump told the Norwegian Nobel Prize committee,"  I am, therefore I must think."

  Now, some would say that Gump's statement is that of an ignoramus.But I say that it is as valid as Descartes' statement. And depending on your ambitions or desire to even think at all, may be of even greater importance to you than Descartes. Yes, Socrates did say that an unexamined life is not worth living, but others may feel that  all this navel-gazing is one step away from full blown narcissism.How can that be good?But remember that Socrates died from hemlock poisoning. Forrest is still alive today and living in Greenbow, Alabama cutting his grass. Who would you rather listen to? If I have heard it said once, I have heard it said a thousand times, ignorance is bliss. You Go Forrest !!!

It's the same, just different

   Sometime I don't feel like a 55 year old man. I love to stand on my toes to see how high I can reach. The same with coasting on my bike without pedaling.  I just want to see how far I can go without stopping. ( Don't even try taking my bike from me !) Or gliding under the water as I swim, holding my breath. I imagine that I belong here. That I can suspend gravity at will .
  But my boyish ways don't translate well to all my life. Thankfully, I am not enthusiastic about setting things on fire just to watch them burn. I am not  interested in chasing ambulances and cop cars, nor do I like watching drunk people light their friends cigarettes. I just can't revel in bearing witness to man's inhumanity to himself. Nor do I enjoy imagining myself as the master of this, or any other universe. It's just not very important to me. So I am not without hope in becoming more of an adult and , ultimately, in being a better human being.

   
    I would rather experience beauty than tragedy. But life is full of surprises. And we don't always choose what channel we get to watch. And God knows that there have been times when I just didn't 'get it.anyhow. As if I were a half-step too slow. But I want to get it. And I hope my curiosity about bicycles and tiptoes translates to things with more purpose and gravity sometime soon. So, in my situation I think it is best to seize the day as I find it, even if it makes no sense to me at the time.
 As my children use to say to me when they were young, "Dad, that is exactly the same as what happened to me, just different."  The same, but different. I think I get it. So from this perspective, I am learning that the difference between Forrest Gump and Rene Descartes may not be as great as what one might assume.