<Note: Not sure everyone got this so I’m resending to all. I apologize for the e-clutter!>
Today’s theme: Tears
Today’s brand new blog post: “Why am I such a crybaby?”
The second most common question asked of me by my daughters, ages 20 and 15, — and I’m paraphrasing here — is: “Why don’t just leave the room when you have to fart?” The answer is if I left the room every time I had to fart I’d never be in the room and despite the odor and commotion they’d miss me so I just let ‘er rip. The first most common question is, “Why are you always crying?” The answer is more complicated. I’ve pondered it a lot, always with a hanky close at hand, and I believe the main reason is I feel my humanity more deeply than most.
Daily Instagram "crayons!" video tip!
Related/recommended music video …
Here’s a 1988 video of the great Roy Orbison singing an achingly beautiful duet with Canadian songstress k.d. lang of Orbison’s classic, “Crying.” This was shot mere months before Orbison died too-soon at age 52.
“Roy Orbison singin’ for the lonely …” Name THAT tune!
Colorful Living Tip of the Day …
• Enjoy a day at the local zoo. Ask staffers if any of the animals use their tails to wipe away tears or if that behavior is exclusive to the Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz”?
(SORTA) Relateds …
• It’s heartening to see so many people being kind, encouraging and working toward shared goals. The pity is it always takes the world coming apart to bring people together.
• I figure I'm about 18 months and two advances in remote control technology before I become utterly incapable of being able to power up the TV and find channel 2 before I burst into tears and beg my sneering daughters for assistance.
• Considered leaving my piece of crap jalopy unlocked because only thing of value in it is stack of free beer chips from various Latrobe clubs and taverns. Decided against it when I realized how sad I'll be if they're taken. #LOCKHERUP!
• Life’s unfair, sure, but the Sunday School teachers preach heaven is not. All the good people — even the marginally good people — get in. Argue that who gets in and your heavenly status ought to be pegged to how many tears are shed at your funeral.
• On most days, happiness and sadness are not emotions. They're decisions. Now, being an asshole, that's different. It's a pre-existing condition.
Unrelated
• Saw angry parents running after a boy they'd named Chase and screaming for him to come back, oblivious to the irony.
• Because of the noisy commotion associated with the happy event, I propose we change "orgasm" to ‘ROARgasm."
• People say my career is really taking off. They're right. It is. It's just that the damn runway is really, really long.
• The literalist in me revels in the fact that the Great Plains state of Iowa has a senator named Grassley and yearns for the day when Wisconsin voters send to Washington their Senator Cheesey.
Zeitgust Word of the Week (a word I made up with the goal of getting it into an actual dictionary) …
Flertilizer: Any boisterous man who tosses around lots of BS in the hopes it'll get romance to bloom with a seedy woman; engaged in an act of flertilization.
Related blog post, “I cry over commercials; farewell Cap’n Jeter” (Sept. ’14) …
Twice this week purported loved ones asked me word-for-word the exact same question. “Are you crying?” Read like that without any inflection, it’s a beautiful question. It’s what caring souls say to one another anytime someone’s in need of human understanding. But my wife and daughter, 14, didn’t have compassion on their agendas. Their intent was to mock. My instinct was to sleeve away the tears, issue a strong denial — “Why, no, I’m not crying.” — then dash into the nearest bathroom, slam the door behind me and settle in for a good long sob
Concluding thought …
• Call me paranoid, but I'm psuspicious any time a pso-called pspokesperson pstoops to including psilent letters in their name. It just pseems psneaky. pSo what else are you trying to hide, Jen Psaki?
• Author’s note …
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