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.