BARREL OF MONKEYS: "GENESIS" in Reverse


I consider myself a Democrat. Been called a Socialist. Definitely a bleeding heart liberal.


As a child from a traditional southern family, playing Barrel of Monkeys on the floor, church every Sunday, doing well in public school, learning a trade; in every sense privileged .........


Comfortable in middle age, an avid news reader, on learning the tragic story of a full grown chimpanzee destroying the face of a woman who offered a toy, only trying to help it's owner coax her surrogate child back into his cage......


Today being confrontational, ribald, offensive, restless, rebellious.......


How did I get here from there?


Search This Blog

Sunday, June 6, 2010

NAKED JESUS's LONG WALK THROUGH THE CROWD

Nude man yells he's 'Jesus', causes 5-car accident!
READ ALL ABOUT IT!

naked
means
not wearing any clothes.
nekkid
means
ain't got no clothes on and yer up ta no good.


What I didn't like about this story is the fact that most every one's attention is on that "crazy nekkid man";
be the one to blame for this mess.

I see something entirely different.
Do not believe this "crazy nekkid man" to be responsible.

For starter, quite possibly a cellphone!
These days, that's the first thing that comes to my mind with a distracted driver.
As we live in a crazy world, do we really need another distraction?
(that's not  even getting into the time "clock in" with this distraction!)
"Whoa! What happened there?"  Weird how our phone conversation got off track.  
(should mention that I do not own a cellphone; amazing how many people think my phone is broken or I gave them the wrong number or they wrote the number down wrong, all because they weren't able to text message me)  
"You know how it is, when talking and driving at the same time," my friend answered.
"Then WHY did you call me while driving?  You should know better than that!"  Could of made better use of that time: Both of us!
His answer,
"I was sitting at a red light."
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" 
("They shoot horses," my mother would say, but not exactly what I was thinking.)


***
The article did use the word "catalyse" and stated that the man has "yet to be ticketed"; a pretty straight forward, unbiased article if you exclude the attention grabbing headline.

But, 
I know people.
So does the "liberal" media.
(newspapers worthless if no one buys one; nothing learned if no one reads; headline's forgivable as long as article's unbiased)
Sadly, most will come away from this article clueless, if not defensive or in denial (guilt or lack of?), to the lessons needed to be learned from other's misfortune.

***

Reminds me of a time traveling back to LSU from Tallahassee on I-10.  The four of us, about to graduate from veterinary school, had just taken the Florida Veterinary State Board exam.

In the middle of no where, we got stuck in a traffic jam,
one that was creeping along;
really, Really, REALLY...... creeping along! 

I was exasperated upon discovering the cause; the cab of an eighteen wheeler on top of a car....all of it, the car included......in flames....."I see dead people!".....(believed we all did!).......the other side of the interstate!


People were slowing down.  Some even pulling over.
Because they had too?
"WHAT WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE,"
Monica screamed, having rolled down the window!

No.......just to
"check it out"!

What I see is a lot more car pile-ups in our future!

****
Word Origin & History

schadenfreude

"malicious joy in the misfortunes of others," 1922, from Ger., lit. "damage-joy," from schaden  "damage, harm, injury" (see scathe) + freude , from O.H.G. frewida  "joy," from fro  "happy," lit. "hopping for joy," from P.Gmc. *frawa-  (see frolic).

"What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than one such a word is found. ... In the Greek epikhairekakia,  in the German, 'Schadenfreude.' " [Richard C. Trench, "On the Study of Words," 1852]

*****

"I'm not crazier than anyone else.  I just got caught."
-Julia Sugarbaker's brother on Designing Women; having just been release from a psychiatric hospital-

No comments:

"One thing I like about the Digital age: having the dictionary at my fingertips, how easy it is to look up unfamiliar words as I go along reading." "At least....... until, I played my first game of SCRABBLE on the internet. Wow! I had no idea you could spell so many words with seven letters every time." "Now I feel pressured to catch up!"