DID YOU EVER NOTICE?

DID YOU EVER NOTICE?

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© August 13, 2009

NOTE: I take a daily peripatetic walk of about four miles, now in 94 degree heat, but I don't mind because thoughts come to me, and I record them as I walk. Sometimes I edit them, but often I don't. This is the case of the latter.
JRF

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Did you ever notice that baldness in men was once an embarrassment? Now Dons of universities, executives, congressmen, doctors, lawyers, and especially athletes go in for the bowling ball look even if by heredity they have a full head of hair.

Did you ever notice that tattoos were once the curse of outsiders, the motorcycle gangs, the disestablished, and renegades? Now, fat old men with their bellies hanging out over their belts, and in Florida shorts, can be seen to have tattoos on their legs, arms and necks as if members of the disenfranchised. Ladies, too, sport these symbols which once separated the losers from the winners, the rich from the riffraff.

Did you ever notice the fist bumps that everyone displays today instead of handshakes? This is a way to show how cool and in touch you are. It reminds me of an orangutan mimicking a baseball player, where the practice originated, suggesting there isn't much evolution in the species.

Did you ever notice people interviewed on celebrity television shows wear rumpled clothing in casual contempt of savoir-faire. They are careful, of course, to be always wearing recognizable designer threads costing thousands of dollars for the more discriminating crowd.

Did you ever notice that there is not a single person no matter how stratospheric the I.Q., or the nature of the expertise that can speak without a collections of “you knows”? Even President Obama, the successor to the “Great Communicator” President Reagan, cannot master the tick.

Did you ever notice how popular music has gone into the toilet, but yet awards are given and “Hall of Fame” distinction to its artists?

Did you ever notice that the “f” word has become cool for nice girls to say in their intimate crowd? It is meant to be liberating but of course has quite the opposite effect.

Did you ever notice that women who want to get ahead, who have the advantage of superior intelligence, insight, intuitive leadership, and emotional courage to that of men, dismiss this advantage of their gender and try to be more male than men are?

Did you ever notice that men, mainly husbands, get their wives and families into desperate straits, and then blame their partners for not having a positive attitude, claiming the reason for the desperation is this and not the lame brained business they orchestrated?

Did you ever noticed that kids who say they are bored are likely to have all the advantages and live in the womb of self-pity with no sense of the reality most kids have to face? More than half the kids in our society live in quiet desperation without the luxury of boredom. It is not because they want to be so disadvantaged. It is because they have no other choice.

Did you ever notice that kids who have to raise their own parents because their parents are on drugs or are drunkards often turn out to be the leaders of our society?

Did you ever notice people who have a problem invariably think the problem is other people's problem? They choose to believe they are the victims of circumstances when they have created the circumstances to which they have victimized others.

Did you ever notice people who always tell lies start out a conversation by saying, “to be honest with you”?

Did you ever notice people who are always talking about sin and sinners proselytizing others to be more religious are actually turning people off, totally, from the whole idea of religion?

Did you ever notice we are most attracted to what we are not? Many entertain the idea of a desperate escape from what they are. Criminals often want to be cops, egregious sinners often want to priests, the lame want to be professional athletes, the stupid want to be scholars. Celebrity is but a frantic attempt to escape from self-knowing and self-acceptance to live in a surreal world.

Did you ever notice that television evangelists always shout? Yet, the only way to get through to people is in a whisper.

Did you ever notice that people who have the grandest homes are the ones getting their names in the paper for dubious deeds in these difficult times?

Did you ever notice when people delight in malicious gossip, most of which you know is fantasy, are the ones most likely to talk disparagingly about you when you are out of ear shot?

Did you ever notice when people say, “everyone thinks this” about this or that it is likely nobody does other than the speaker?

Did you ever notice that the people who are the funniest and most entertaining are likely to be the most disturbed and depressed in their private thoughts?

Did you ever notice people who belong to everything fail to belong intimately to the people closes to them?

Did you ever notice the name or face or disposition of the person serving you in the restaurant or department store? These people struggle to make a living. They must always have a smile on their faces, despite the fact their own lives may be falling apart.

Did you ever notice the maintenance men in the store who walk around doing the job seem to be invisible?

Did you ever notice what a joy it is to be you, right now, without a hairpiece or some other cosmetic contraption, but just you, right now, living and breathing, and wondering?

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