Why the Universe does, in fact, Revolve Around Me!
How much pressure is too much? I mean it…
…just how much pressure can you use when twisting the heads of puppies before it becomes too much? Cute, tiny, defenseless, newborn, half-blind fluffy, whimpering puppies? You don’t know, do you, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH…… We use words like honor, code, loyalty…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! AHHHHHH – DON’T JUDGE ME!!
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Whoa, hey fella – take it easy. Yes you’re right, of course – that was waaaay off base – I guess I still have some residual anger to work out…. inside voice, I must remember to use my inside voice so as not to frighten all the nice people……
I was pretty angry, still am I guess, when the whole heart dancing the samba thing started up again. The injustice of it all, the way the very planets themselves took time out of their busy days filled with endless revolving to stricken me, to foist upon me the vile scourge and hateful misery of it all…. …. Have I gone and over-estimated my worth and importants in the universe? Perhaps, but here’s the thing…
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
We all know things are bad — worse than bad — they’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”
Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad!
I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!” So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
35 Years, that speech was written 35 years ago, back in 1976 for the movie “Network”. When I first wrote those words I had no idea the sentiment would still be so timely nearly 40 years in the future. I won the Academy Award for that movie and it was one of the proudest moments of my young life, all that and I wasn’t even 10 years old yet.
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Here’s what I’ve gleamed from re-reading that speech. They were bitching about the same thing 40 years ago they are today, the world, she never changes. Ergo, hell yes I said ergo – the world never changes so why let it get to you. Either you allow the frustration to twist & tear you up and make life miserable OR you take control and make sure you are the one doing all the twisting & tearing…. And now we’re back at the puppies…..ohhhhh too soon?
We’ve come full circle and that my friends is some pretty fancy writing.
Have a Great Day! No puppies were harmed in the writing of this post. As far as you know…