Got to fess right up from the start and tell you that this piece is going to come perilously close to Hallmark Card country.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
It’s just that part of the paradox of being me is my conflicted pre-dispositions.
I really do enjoy having the cockles of my heart warmed.
I just don’t feel all that comfortable showing anyone my cockles.
Any shrink worth their salt, or, for that matter, any ten year old who got to know me for more than ten minutes would likely suggest that I’m a pretty garden variety mix of self image, self worth, self medicating and, hell, even maybe self storage issues, manifesting in a presentation that wants, even needs, to have it both ways.
On the inside, where I don’t let you look, that puppy is getting me all verklempt, too.
On the outside…”…hey, pass me a brewski and shut that damn dog up, we’re watchin’ the game…”
Accompanied, of course, by all of the requisite high fiving and crotch scratching indigenous to my gender.
Disclaimer duly noted.
Life, I once read, is entirely about what you do with the dash.
As in, look on any tombstone and you will see, along with name and, perhaps, a timeless tagging, like “beloved husband and father”, something that looks like this.
1947-2009.
The year of birth.
The year of death.
The dash.
And, as the poets have waxed and waned through the eons, what matters is what we do with the dash.
Here’s the story of guy who grasps the concept.
Several years ago, Steve Mazan, a stand-up comedian, was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. Unsure of how much time he had left, Mr. Mazan immediately set out to achieve his life-long dream -- perform comedy on the David Letterman show. Tonight that goal became a reality.
It didn't always seem like this was going to happen. After hearing about his illness, Mazan began petitioning CBS to let him perform at the Ed Sullivan Theater. He even started a website, the darkly comic "DyingtoDoLetterman.com." But CBS said, "No dice." Just because Mazan had cancer, CBS wasn't automatically going to book him on "The Late Show With David Letterman." In other words, Mazan would have to earn it.
Mazan was undeterred and respected the network for its decision. After all this is a guy whose motto is: "If you stop chasing your dream, you're already dead." He worked at his craft and eventually, he got to perform on Craig Ferguson's show twice. Of course, while Ferguson is great and all, he's not Letterman.
Mazan kept on pushing. And soon enough, Letterman came calling. But that's not all -- a documentary on Mazan's mission is currently in production. No doubt his Letterman routine on the evils of hotel keycards will be a highlight.
I have a theory I can’t prove for the time being.
I think it safe to say that all of us, at one time or another, wonder about how we’re going to die.
And we wonder about when.
But, I also think we don’t give much thought to how we’re going to account for our time in this life.
Aside, of course, from the sixty-three minutes, give or take, each Sunday when those kind of thoughts wander in and out of our heads, between thoughts of fried chicken and/or football games, as we sit in the pews, listening to the pastor preach about how we’re going to have to account for our time in this life.
Or in the case of many, present company included, during the sixty-three minutes, give or take, during Christmas Eve and/or Easter services.
But I gotta tell ya, I’d love to be a fly on the wall (or pearly gate, as it were) when Steve Mazan shows up.
“And what did you do with your dash, Steve…?”, the angelic tollbooth operator asks with a beatific smile.
“Found out I was going to die young…so, I did what my heart led to me to do..”
Yet another beatific smile, accompanied by a gentle nodding of the head.
“Gathered your family and friends around you and, putting your faith in God, lived each day as if it were your last?”
“Uh….yeah, that, too…”
“And…?”
“I did Letterman…and they put me up in a really nice hotel…with one of those damn keycards...”
If, as I sometimes suspect, there is an APPLAUSE sign in Heaven, it’s already flashing.
Very nice dash, Steve.
No comments:
Post a Comment