Blunt Wit

I was sooooo hungry I could have eaten Irish babies. So I stopped into “The Whistle Stop Cafe,” a little deli not far from my home at the time. All the sandwiches were named after trains. My favorite happened to be the ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ (and not just because I’m from Tennessee) which consisted of homemade chicken salad with lots of dill and huge chunks of meat. I stayed away from the ‘Midnight Express’ cause I’m not that into Turkey. And I don’t know how or why they slipped the ‘Titanic’ onto the menu other than to prey on the odd unsuspecting Leonardo DiCaprio fan.

After grabbing my sandwich and picking up a loose paper I sat down and came to an article on the editorial page written by the Dalai Lama.

It was originally written in the Washington Post but reprinted in this local newspaper. There were two paragraphs that blew me away so I thought to share them with you here today:

“Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace “inner disarmament,” reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred and hostility towards our brothers and sisters.

And …

Large human movements spring from individual human initiatives. If you feel that you cannot have much of an effect, the next person may also become discouraged, and a great opportunity will have been lost. On the other hand, each of us can inspire others simply by working to develop our own altruistic motivations – and engaging the world with a compassion-tempered heart and mind.”

His message, while simple, was profound. Change begins at home. Peace starts at a very personal level. I wondered, though, if the folks in war ravaged lands like Iraq or Sudan could possibly adopt his credo. And then I thought those folks probably represent less than one percent of the human population on earth. The point is, I guess – for those of us in the other ninety-nine percent – to develop our good-hearted motivations while engaging the world at large.

So on the spot I vowed to change the toilet paper roll without cursing the heathen who left it empty and in first place. Also, I figure writing this blog post should build me some karma points since there is a small chance at least ONE of you reading this will take it to heart, get off your butt and really do something!

Then my entrepreneurial instincts kicked in and I thought wouldn’t it be cool to open deli with a ‘world peace’ motif. The house specialty vegan sandwich would, of course, be named the ‘Dali Lama’. We’d have a hot pastrami on rye called ‘Global Warming.’ My favorite would be the ‘Mahatma Gandhi,’ a curried treat only to be eaten sitting down. And of course there would be the ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ for those dreamy types who love miracle whip.

On second thought maybe I’ll just propose my own sandwich to the owners of the Whistle Stop: ‘The Peace Train.’

What ingredients should go into ‘The Peace Train’ sandwich?
What small do-able thing can you commit to doing to make this world more peaceful?
If you could add a sandwich to the menu what would it be (name and key ingredients)?

So you might have heard a piece that runs occasionally on National Public Radio called “This I Believe” in which Americans from all walks of life share their personal philosophies and core values that guide their daily lives. That show itself is based on a similar show from the 1950’s. I really enjoy the show and spent some time bumping around their website and thought to share a few gems I uncovered.
First there is the one done by John Updike entitled “Testing the limits of what I Know and Feel”. Thoughtful and interesting.
Another is by Isabelle Allende about the life lessons her dying daughter imparted to her entitled “In Giving I Connect with Others”. Quite moving actually.
Another really good one is by Azar Nafrisi entitled “Mysterious Connections that Link us Together“. She makes a rather compelling case for empathy.
And one of my personal favorites and totally my style (I promise you’ll laugh if you click) is by Jason Sheehan entitled “There is No Such Thing as Too Much BBQ.”
So after reading and listening to these I began to ponder the question for myself. I came up with the following for myself:

Always Look on the Absurd Side of Life

I am physically nondescript. Boring, really. I don’t really stand out in a police line-up. And, knock on wood, I’ve survived more of those than it is probably prudent to share here. I don’t have any good stories to tell about my experience to tug at your heart strings or mist over your eyes. Although I have been known to contract curable cancer on occasion and carry around stray puppies in seek of sympathy. I don’t even have a discernible philosophy of life. Well, that is if you discount the ultimate redeeming spiritual value of soccer and beer. In fact, I don’t know what crazy idea possessed me to try to answer that question.
Ah, wait, I do know, there is one thing that I believe in! I believe in the absolute absurdity of life. I mean how else do you explain the world today: grand triumphs such as the microchip or edible underwear; and sullen tragedies like abject poverty, war and Reality TV?
Having grown up down south, middle class in the 1970’s I am unabashedly a child of the earlier TV generation. I grew up on a steady diet of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and M.A.S.H. I have never wanted for much of anything. But conversely, I have never given that much either. I have drifted through life like Huck Finn down the Mississippi – without so much as a care bout nothin. But along the way for some unexplainable reason, I developed a deep affinity for this world and its inhabitants.
In my late teens I traveled to China and saw great suffering up close and personal for the first time. Later I visited other countries and saw other people a thousand times less materially well off than me. I taught English as a second language in Japan and made more money in a day’s wage than half this earth’s population made in a year. The only rational reason I could come up with to explain this was, well, looniness.
Later still, I married and we had kids. And now my daughter and son are growing up in a post 9/11 world. A much more dangerous world where wacko terrorists kill and maim innocent civilians; and where we traipse off to war in faraway lands full of bravado.
I fear that a group of nations is ultimately like a class of unruly kindergarteners. And somehow we’ve cast ourselves as the class bully. I fear the hubris of our generation today will only beget sorrow and suffering for that of our children’s generation tomorrow. And that makes me a bit sad.
But hey, I try to never despair too much while thinking about these things that remind me the ludicrousness of life. Why, you say? Because, in the immortal words of Eric Idle, “Always look on the bright side of life!”

Now for today’s question, I’d like to create a new ‘this I believe’ tag. Hell why not! So I would ask anyone who reads this and feels so inclined to please write an any-length essay on what they believe. Hell you could even submit it to NPR! I think I might even submit mine.

Here are the NPR stated guidelines: “Tell a story: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work, and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching—it can even be funny—but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs.”

So consider yourself tagged – what do you believe (be sure to link back here)?

Brian (Eric Idle) on the cross …

Have you ever been tongue tied, rendered mentally or emotionally vacant; found yourself searching, praying for an excuse for your own insouciance?
Well, I have.
And to assist you in coming up with that ‘just so’ pretext for any transgression, big or small, I have decided to give up a few of my exculpatory gems for your general use.
Behind this veritable curtain of charitable largesse lies no small amount of guilt at my lack of blogging consistency these past few weeks. I have been AWOL, MIA, and unplugged from the world at large. You might think I ran off to some distant ashram. And you might be right. I wouldn’t want to misdirect any rationalizations you might be self-generating, imagining if you will, in your fertile imagination.
Truth be told, I was …
1. Abducted by aliens.

This is good because it is generally unprovable and establishes you as bit of a nut job. Once you establish this precedent you can use it over and over with relative impunity. The downside is you lose valuable street cred as a responsible human being.

2. Receiving a guided tour of Gitmo.

If my name, Joe Blow (note, changed here to protect my true identity), makes the terrorist watch list (which sadly, it does) then you can easily claim that yours does too. This way any random airport screening or innocent traffic infraction can result in a special rendition where are whisked off the sunny Cuba for a ‘debriefing’. In this day and age who would not believe you had your basic rights trampled in the name of the GWOT.

3. In a drug (or alcohol) induced fog.

Use this when life has dragged you into the gutter and your only coping mechanism is chemically induced euphoria. Think of it as the excuse of movie stars! You can further imply that you went to some faraway ‘treatment center’ and got all better. The beauty of this one is the well documented relapse.
So I hope you find my excuses valuable. Remember, two wrongs don’t ever make a right, but they make a damn good excuse.

What’s your best excuse? Did it work?
Have you ever been abducted by aliens, whisked to Gitmo, or lost to a chemical fog before?