Monday, January 30, 2017

Human Beings Are Often Wrong!

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." - Vince Lombardi

"I'm just talking to the Universe." - Yoko Ono

I was wrong. I was wrong about Lombardi. When I was a kid, I hated Lombardi. My father was a salesman, and he had these motivational tapes featuring Lombardi. I despised that motivational crap. I did not like that man.

Many years later (1999), I read a biography of Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered." I fell in love with the man. Great man. Great coach. An inspiration. I was wrong.

I was wrong about Yoko Ono too. When I was young I thought she was the woman who broke up the Beatles. Stole John's heart and killed the band. I did not like that woman.

I was wrong. I later learned that Lennon wanted out, and fell in love with Yoko, an amazing conceptual artist, and together they embarked on a pretty dazzling artistic adventure. Yoko Ono is one of the most influential artists of our time. An inspiration. I was wrong.

This is a roundabout way to get to my point this morning. Human beings are fallible. Often we are wrong. It's best to keep that in mind at all times. Lots of havoc, pain, chaos, is around every corner. History is littered with the tragedies that come with Human Beings who have Big Ideas, who want to move mountains, and move people around like chess pieces.

The best venues for the big ideas is in sports or in arts. Channel the creativity,  practice the art of creating and destroying in those realms. Politics is a dangerous place. Push too hard and the masks of our rationality are easily fractured. No telling what horrors and phobias, and madnesses are seething beneath the masks.

We have an ill man, a man of unsound mind, in the White House, and he is surrounded by the worst people. The worst people imaginable. Sounds overwrought? I think not. Clear-seeing. What's a poor, humble Pilgrim to do?

The Coach would tell us, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Get ready for some tough going. And the Artist would tell us, "Open your box..."

Open your box,

Open your box,
Open your trousers,
Open your thighs,
Open your legs,
Open, open, open, open, oh.


Open, open, open, open,
Open your legs,
Open your flies,
Open your ears,
Open your nose,
Open your mouth,
Open, open, open, open, oh.
Open.


Open your cold feet,
Open, open,
Open, open, open, let's open, let's open the cities.


Open the cities,
Open, open, open the world,
Open, let's open the world.


Open, open, oh
Open, open, oh!