Today’s reading is from “It Ain’t No Sin to Be Glad You’re Alive” by Eric Alterman:
“The sunny new Springsteen is also evident in the album’s packaging. Gone are the blank existential stares of the Frank Stefanko photographs for Darkness and The River and the stark , depressing Robert Frank-style artwork of Nebraska.”
These messages have been coming at me lately. Last night as Kyle and I watched previews before “The Bucket List,” a scene from “Definitely, Maybe” depicted a young daughter and her dad talking:
Daughter: “I want you to be happy.”
Dad: “I’m happy.”
Daughter: “Trust me Dad. You’re not happy.”
Of course the feature film theme was, “Find the Joy in your life…”
“Break the Mold.” That’s the sage advice from my buddy Alan. Another smart guy, Albert Einstein is credited with this definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“Can you give me some dating tips?” That was the question floated out toward me a couple weeks ago. I think the question was facetious, but I still had no idea what to say and that fact I couldn’t say what I was really thinking: “Are you kidding? With that whole brains/beauty thing you have going on, all you have to do is show up,” still irks me. I went with a very safe “Don’t settle,” followed by a short passage on how I won’t compromise time with my children for a woman, blah, blah, blah… Yeah, she basically got the kitchen-ready recipe for “How to be alone.”
Safe. At arm’s length. Still living in the darkness on the edge of town… Protected by my facade like carbonite, but fighting for air.
I guess the real advice I should give and follow is the Nike brand slogan. There’s no way around it. You’ve got to drop the bags at the curb and jump on the train because it’s moving. When the ghosts catch your eye and your old friend fear smiles wickedly, smile back and keep moving…
“I’ll teach my eyes to see beyond these walls in front of me
And someday I’ll walk out of here again
But now I’m trapped”
Trapped – written by Jimmy Cliff, performed by Bruce Springsteen
The sunny new me.
Very nice.