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2006-07-09 - 9:02 p.m.
"I went to see, like, Cornel West speak in a university out in Ohio. And he said during his speech the worst thing a parent can tell their child is to be successful. Because sometimes being successful and being great aren't synonymous."
Dave Chappelle, on an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper
Well, first, Chappelle's Show is -- was -- unbelievably funny, obviously daring and, for me at least, really helped point out problems in the world that showed how painful they could be while being hilarious enough to make things feel better.
It's a great shame the show's probably dead. There's a kind of Biff Loman feeling Chappelle voiced that I'm in right now, continuing from the last entry, that being a success and being great aren't necessarily the same thing.
I'm not sure where being happy fits into the entire scheme there. There's a trick to being happy I haven't gotten yet. I'm not unhappy, really, or sad, and I've been happy before and will be again, but I mean happy in that way that I see people happy sometimes, that atman-brahman of containing a universe in themselvs and being part of the universe.
What happiness and greatness and success have meant over the centuries has changed so much. The notion of progress is really kind of a notion from the industrial era, linked with misperceptions about evolution. Back in the medieval days, people were just born into their lot and mostly kind of accepted it, didn't think much about moving up or down station. What might people think about notions of progress a thousand years from now?
But even commoners in medieval Europe felt assured about their place in immortality. It seems nowadays that with the coming of wanting to progress, people aren't so sure about their place in immortality, that they can be forgotten, that you have to fight as hard as you can to win your 15 minutes of fame, because that's all you might get. Hmm. Very likely I'm projecting there.
I'm not saying I want a return to serfdom, or a ramp up back to how religion used to be. I'm no less determined to be successful or great or happy than I was before.
But my heart deeply goes out to people who don't have that determination, who have either lost their way or never had it, the people who are faded, the people who are walking ash and walking dust, the people who don't know how to be happy or great or successful or think they are but are not, the Ozymandiases of the world. I could very well be one of them -- it's a fine line of perception. I would think I'd be afraid of them, of being one of them or becoming one of them, but I've always felt deep companionship with them, in the grey and dark places of the world, in the lands of mistakes and wrong turns and missed opportunities, because I've never been a stranger there. And I would not be the man I was if I could not love those lands beyond the sun.
Recommended Listening: William Shatner's "It Hasn稚 Happened Yet," off his album "Has Been." Gloinson and the foul reprobrate hate this song, but I love it. I like the elegaic nature of it, the brief touch of comedy, the maturity of it.
I was crossing the snow fields
In front of the capital building
It was Christmas and I was alone
Strange city
Stingers for friends
I was broke
As the carillons sang its song
I dreamt of success
I would be the best
I would make my folks proud
I would be happy
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened
Yes there are nods in my directions
Clap of hands
A knowing smile
But still
I知 scared again
I知 scared again
I知 scared again
Foot slipped
Pebbles fall and so did I
Almost
I知 high
On Yosemite
The big gray wall
Fear of falling
Where to put my foot next
Fear of failure
I知 afraid I知 going to fall
(Be at one with the mountain
I whispered in the air
I知 afraid I知 going to fall (falling)
Fear of failure (failure)
Fear of losing my hair
Falling
When is the mountain scaled
When do I feel I haven't failed
I致e got to get it together man
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened
People come and say hello
Ok, I can get to the front of the line
But you have to ignore the looks
And yet
I知 waiting for that feeling of contentment
That ease at night when you put your head down and the rhythm slow to sleep
My heads sways and eyes start awake
I知 there not halfway between sleep and death
But looking into
Eyes wide open
Trying to remember
What I might have done
Should've done
At my age I need serenity
I need peace
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened
It hasn't happened
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