“Why so glum chum?”
Heath Ledger said it best.
And it’s a phrase that’s kind of like an inside joke.
If you say it to me, I know and you know and we both know the other knows.
Kind of like when my kids say “Damn it, Jim.”
Which has become my catch all phrase for “I don’t know.”
From Star Trek, “Damn it, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a political adviser.”
Insert whatever career works best in the last part.
I don’t get the glum chum question much.
Or rather, it is phrased “What’s wrong with you?”
And today, it was well deserved.
Today, I am heartbroken.
You know why.
You watched it play out on television and social media.
I’m not going to write about it. I did that somewhere else.
Feel what you feel today.
I write a whole series about the break down of society.
You saw in color how easy it could happen.
People, man. People.
I learned this lesson when I was a kid.
It started in fourth grade, but got worse by seventh.
If you watched a John Hughes movie about teenage clicks, then you know what I’m talking about.
Kids are mean.
And they grow up into mean adult People.
Mean people are in both parties.
Mean people run the news to get you to watch so they can make money.
Mean people demonize anyone else not like them, mostly so you will end up doing what the mean people want.
But I think it’s almost always about money.
Maybe that’s just a today thought.
I don’t think money is the root of evil though.
I think money is awesome and I want more of it.
I use money to buy beer and go sit with my friends, who don’t all think like me.
We sip suds and tell jokes and don’t really debate “the issues.”
Or rather, our issues are who is going to start as pitcher at the tournament in thirteen weeks, or who needs hitting lessons or to spend time in the batting cages.
We talk about running and the job market.
One of them is being downsized, and we commiserate. A lot, because I’ve been there.
I was going to say a person is good, but “people” can suck.
But what I think I mean, and what I think you know is, while “people” can suck, YOUR PEOPLE are cool.
Think about your people for a minute.
Think about how they are a little different from you. Maybe it’s just one way.
Maybe it’s a hundred ways.
But they are YOUR PEOPLE.
For me, not a single person in my close knit circle of friends would run a hundred mile race.
They think I’m weird for doing it.
They think I’m different because I never wanted a white picket fence or to settle down with roots.
That I think doing cross country van runs is awesome, and seeing and experiencing things is better than buying things.
They don’t understand how my mind can make up a drug deal gone bad, and then go play with the boys at baseball.
Or why I dance so badly at music.
And yet, I feel accepted by them despite my quirks. I feel like they like talking to me.
Who knows what they really think because you never know what lurks in the heart of man.
But I think of it like this.
Your people love you for you.
You love your people for who they are.
Their weirdness, the inside jokes, the memories made together.
I think that should be enough to build on.
A guy in traffic this morning hopped up on my ass in a construction zone.
I do the speed limit in roadwork. Too much can go wrong too fast.
He must have been in a hurry, because I could see him in the mirror, yelling, gesturing.
Pissed.
We made it through a merge and I sped up to scoot into the middle lane, and he jammed it to get to the far left and race around me.
Almost clipped my fender.
I shot him the bird. He shot me the bird.
Then he sped on to his job wherever that was, and I came home to start working on mine.
Which is maybe how all disagreements should be settled.
Like a double FU, and then people go on about their business.
One last thing.
I’m a Star Wars fan.
I read an interesting theory about why the Jedi were cut off from the Force in the Prequels.
The leader (Palpatine) knew that people living in fear and anger would lead to the dark side.
So he fermented war, fermented rebellion, fermented dissension, so the Jedi could only feel the people’s sense of fear, of frustration, of their anger.
The Jedi, the champions of good, could only feel what the worlds in the galaxy were putting out, and they were putting out natural emotions that were the opposite of calm, the opposite of reason.
It handicapped them, and they were defeated.
Anger. Aggression. These lead to the dark side.
Or if you like Dune, Fear is the mind killer.
Meaning, it is hard to think when you are afraid.
It’s great for advertisers when you are scared. You lock your eyes on television so you can get “information” so you know what to do.
Man, that’s just biology and survival. The more you know, the better you can protect yourself and your family.
But if the man on the TV is selling you FEAR, don’t buy it.
“I will walk through the valley of the shadow and fear no evil.”
You can finish it how you want.
“Because you are with me.”
Or “Because there is so little to fear.”
Or “Because I am the meanest MF’er in the valley.”
Be not afraid.
When everything around you conspires to keep you close to the boiling point, it takes so little to make you lose control and boil over.
So this weekend, find your people.
The ones who bring you joy and laughter.
Turn on the music, grab your favorite drink, coffee, tea or me.
And smile. Fill your heart with joy and gladness and ignore everything outside of it.
That’s what I’m trying to do.
And it’s tough. I know it is.
But you bring me joy. You make me smile. You are my people. And you don’t have to be afraid of nothing.
Chris Lowry Books 