Every few months I catch a snippet of conversation, live or recorded, where someone my age is telling someone younger “We didn’t all get blue ribbons just for effort”. Canned cynicism is tiresome and that little chunk of it is almost as worn out as the thing about how we didn’t have helmets or knee pads. It’s all true but it doesn’t add to any dialogue and it accuses an entire generation of being soft, a generation the sayer of such things raised.
Imagine telling a veteran of any conflict or war this side of Korea that “We didn’t whine about PTDS in my day”. It sounds much harsher, no? It’s the same argument. Sort of. It’s a mean spirited dialogue ending argument and it’s based on a skewed premise; nobody whined about small pox when there was no vaccine; tragic all the same.
The blue ribbon just for trying thing though, it does sort of take the wind out of the sails of competition. The helmet and kneepad thing — I don’t know, I spent most of my childhood with scabby knees and elbows. I’m not sure it was character building exactly but I only remember crying about it once. I never did have a concussion, um, that I’m aware of. To this day a helmet makes me feel too insulated, like I have to turn my whole head all the time to see and hear everything. I’m not claustrophobic but wearing a helmet must be what mild claustrophobia feels like.
I think it’s oversimplifying things, the blue ribbon thing, basically stating, generally, that we have lost our competitive edge for the sake of sparing some feelings. But there is a point in there somewhere and our public school systems have lost their competitive edge. It isn’t really winning the blue ribbon that is important, only one person gets it when it’s only awarded to first place, it’s the striving for it that is significant. That’s why the dumbest saying of all time, at least a contender for it, is ‘It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.’ Nobody should be playing the game to lose, that’s not a game, that’s a forfeit.
It isn’t even apropos unless your team plays dirty or cheats. The saying might mean ‘Playing your hardest is the important thing’ but, um, you could just say that, it’s even shorter, more direct and less open to interpretation. It’s just as defeatist though. Kids play like dogs play; using a skill set that they’d need if left to their own devices. As cute as fetch and tug of war might look with your daschund, it’s the skill set of hunting. Giving all the kids blue ribbons for participating is like letting your daschund win at tug of war every time. It might bolster the weinie dogs confidence but it doesn’t improve his skill set. I know, both you and sausage shaped snack dog expect he will be living out his life next to you on the sofa watching animal planet and that’s probably an accurate prediction. It’s not what you expect of your kids though, even if it’s nickelodeon instead of animal planet. You expect your kids to surpass you in acheivements, knowledge, sex, drugs, rock and roll (just adding comparative values, just saying you expect your kids to be better versions of you).
I think I mentioned that this chair steal thoughts right? I got halvah from amazon today. I was tired of local “health food” and “alternative” grocery stores saying that they’ve never heard of it or pointing out Challa ( a sweet bread). I had some thought about something else, there’s a tv show in it’s second season called something like How to get away with murder.
I’m guessing it’s about getting away with a specific murder, just sport murder is easy; 1) don’t already be in a database, like prints or dna, if you couldn’t get away with shoplifting you aren’t going to get away with murder 2) go somewhere that nobody knows you, find a spot without cameras or onlookers, wait for a motherfucker to come by, give him some kind of mortal wound and go back home. 3) Pay for everything with cash and avoid traveling by means of any place with cameras, receipts or records. But, you know, if you just want to murder someone, anyone, and you’re looking for advice, prosebox is not where you should be looking. There must be a journal site for sociopaths, maybe myspace (is that still around? Last I looked it was like rolling stones magazine, there didn’t seem to be anything in-between the ads except, sometimes, cologne).
I guess that’d make myspace (if it’s still around) the perfect place for sociopaths; no one is looking. Ok, if this idea stealing chair were a rocker I’d be off it.
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