Many
moons ago, I worked in a local hardware store with a fellow named John Skau.
John
was a man of few words; ok, I lied - he never stopped talking. A student at Rutgers, John was no stranger to
the wisdom that flows forth from a 12 ounce can and the imagination which often
comes "special delivery" in a package that sort of resembles a
cigarette, but not the kind you buy in a pack.
When
I mat John, his first question to break the ice was as perplexing as it was
memorable. "So, what's your favorite
Aerosmith song?", he asked.
I
offered "walk this way" as my best response. He was not amused.
"How
would you even assume I know ANY Aerosmith songs?", I shot back.
"Everybody
knows Aerosmith, dude".
"Ok,
then", I continued; "That seems like an odd way to get to know
somebody".
Skau
explained further. "There's nothing
more important in my world than Aerosmith, and if I'm going to get to know
someone - that's where we start".
In
SkauWorld, that was it.
I
got to thinking recently about people's mantra (you hear it constantly) that
people in close company should not discuss religion or politics...EVER.
I've
heard it so many times, it feels like the two words/concepts should hold hands
together as they jump out of the dictionary and into the abyss of forgotten
words/concepts as disco, jazzercise, and the USSR. Quaint concepts from another era.
I
say no.
If
I value relationships and the people they enjoying my life to - then I should
want the whole package, shouldn't I?
I
want to know your favorite food, band, deity, politicians, places to travel,
movie, book, story, song, day of the week.
I
also want to know the worst hotel you've ever stayed in, the song you can't get
out of your head, the person that infuriates you, and what you think of Simon
Cowell.
It
doesn't end there. Tell me how you feel
about abortion, gun control, affirmative action, the Occupy Movement, nuclear
power, global warming, the Wars, the last President, the next President, Barack
Obama's birth certificate and Mitt Romney's tax returns.
We
may not agree on everything. Heck, we
may not agree on ANYTHING...but that's the point. How else can a person expand their horizons
but to venture into uncharted territory?
If
Socrates was correct (and he was) when he said "the unexamined life is not
worth living", then shouldn't we examine the entire show together?
Back
in Schoolhouse Rock, children are urged to "unpack their adjectives"
to let everyone else know how a recent excursion went.
What
happens after adolescence that makes adults so fearful and lazy that they keep ideas
and feelings inside - festering and rotting- instead of taking them out for all the world to see? If we're not even free to examine each
other's attitude's, how can we have the audacity to call ourselves friends?
As
we have seen recently, a poorly crafted propaganda film is all that demagogues
need to sow the seeds of hate...especially when the representatives of peace
and progress sit idly by, paralyzed by politics of paucity and apathy. We are better than that.
Getting
out the vote is fine enough...what we really need to do is get out the talk.
All
of us.
You may dance, I
may sing.
You may kneel in
prayer, I may not.
You may see the
world as a mosaic, I a melting pot.
You may look
forward in idyllic vision, I may reflect on a sobering past.
What we must do through
it all is communicate.
If I value our
relationship, why would I not want to know which things you hold most dear? That's the good stuff! (Okay, it's all good stuff).
Our
peace and assured continuity as a species is created in the harmony of
constructive, compromisingly created and shared visions, not in the crucible of
protracted and debilitating cycles of victory and defeat producing more damage
and enmity than progress.
People seem concerned that every thing they write online is online forever. I say..."I certainly hope so!"
Aerosmith
is as good a place as any to start, but by no means is it a place to stop.
And
remember...today is another day to kick cancer in the ass.
Peas,
J
