My friend Hank called himself a cynic, which means he was really a romantic. For proof, I offer the following -- the man's favorite poet was Catullus and he stayed in love with the same people for much longer than any logic could warrant. He was also a notorious gossip, shit talker, advice giver, and storyteller extraordinaire. I could count on him to spill any secrets, prefacing his talk with Nobody is supposed to know, but . . . And to quote old Ben Franklin, Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Our world was a veritable Peyton Place of interesting lives, strange Gothic secrets, and tales about everyone from the most important people we knew and who they were seeing on the side to the town retard Jay Lonnie who worked at the Stop and Go and got fired for stealing Mars bars, bulking up his already considerable heft.
I love the Joan Didion essay about convincing a bored friend of hers to attend a party in Manhattan, telling him there would be all new people there and he'd have a great time. At the end of the night, he told her that he'd slept with five of the woman at the party and owed three of the men money. That's sort of the nature of my world -- incredibly small and incestuous, running into the same people over and over in the most unlikely of spots. Unlike Hank, I define myself as a pragmatist, meaning that I'm probably a cynic. My horoscope today told me that I'm exceptionally good with difficult people. And I do love the difficult because they have the best secrets. And much like people, I keep running into the same secrets over and over again prefaced with the same siren song -- Nothing can save me except love! Like Catullus was fond of writing about his unobtainable love, Lesbia, a thousand kisses would not be enough so give me a thousand more and then a thousand after that. Even if it doesn't have a happy ending, like telling stories, it's fun while you're in the midst of it.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment." Dorothy Parker
Cocktail Hour
Drinking movie suggestion: No Country For Old Men
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Sunday!
5 comments:
How could Hank have been anything but a cynical romantic and keep you entertained because you are a difficult person yourself my buddy.
Personally you keep me entertained in the same way when we do get the chance to have our ships pass close in the ocean of life.
Peace
maek
**Shuffles feet, looking at the ground**
You are pretty good with difficult people. I should have more faith in that than I do. But I'm a cynic, even in the face of evidence that says I shouldn't be.
He was also a notorious gossip, shit talker, advice giver, and storyteller extraordinaire.
I see those words whenever I look in a mirror. What more can be said?
Once again, Michelle, we have something in common. I am very good with difficult people. I used to think that I gravitated towards the difficult, perhaps to take some of their burden upon myself, or try to help 'fix' what was broken. Even though those actions were in constant conflict with my cynical pessimism which I had confomed to. However, after spending a great deal of time discovering what I am and what I want, I have ascertained that it is the difficult people who are the most interesting to me. For me, they are REAL. It is the difficult that makes life interesting and ultimately enjoyable. To be uncomplicated is in itself problematic. I am a difficult person, and I love being with me. Therefore,it follows that my enjoyment of difficult people has caused my inherent optimism to emerge from within.
Chameleon
I oxmorically agree. It's pure emphatic dubiousness. Thank you.
Attn: Prof. Irwin Corey, I thought you would agree since it was through your motivation I explored and eventually traveled the path to that way of thinking.
chameleon
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