In the last week, a prince found his bride, a dictator saw his child and grandchildren die, a dead pope became a saint, the president divulged his long form birth certificate and, all the while,our wars rage on, hundreds of tornadoes kill hundreds of people and state after state works to dismantle a hundred or so years of a great and compassionate society. What I will take away from this week? A young girl in a funny hat. What does this say about me? About us?
Mae West said, “It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it”. I don’t really think that she meant that we should all be shallow. I do think she means that if you don’t capture someone’s attention you won’t have their ear (or heart). Mae managed both. Hopefully, Princess Beatrice will attract someone who sees something besides a toilet seat wrapped with a ribbon.
We live in a time when so many things are scary, confusing, negative or just overwhelming. We can’t stop trying to help or fix or whatever but maybe we need a different way. Maybe all the arguing, debate and discourse has become wallpaper. Bad wallpaper. The kind that has scenes of dogs killing wild pigs and hunters shooting foxes surrounded by hounds. In the dining room. In flocking. The British (who love this wallpaper) call their hats ‘fascinators’. Maybe we need to Fascinate more. Flock less...
We live in a time when so many things are scary, confusing, negative or just overwhelming. We can’t stop trying to help or fix or whatever but maybe we need a different way. Maybe all the arguing, debate and discourse has become wallpaper. Bad wallpaper. The kind that has scenes of dogs killing wild pigs and hunters shooting foxes surrounded by hounds. In the dining room. In flocking. The British (who love this wallpaper) call their hats ‘fascinators’. Maybe we need to Fascinate more. Flock less...
Yesterday night I laughed so hard it hurt. Who was the comic? It was President Obama poking fun at Donald Trump. After weeks of silence and working hard to be the adult in the room, the president let loose at the Correspondents' Annual dinner. In one monologue he successfully wiped out anyone’s hopes of seeing the Donald as a candidate. Mr. Trump did the rest by showing very publicly how thin skinned he was by scowling the entire time.
After weeks of silence while someone went on every network, cable channel and even AM radio to question his birth, his intelligence, his race and even his religion, the president leveled a single volley and won the war. With humor. When it was Obama's turn in the hot seat it was Seth Mayer who was the hired gun for the evening. His machine gun delivery, dead panning and snarky boy SNL delivery was great and while he fired away we watched two men in the same room who would be our nation's leader. One laughing at himself; one scowling at the court jester.
Certainly it was the right place and time and certainly the President gave and took equally and skewered himself the most; his ‘Lion King ‘clip as his birth video was hysterically funny and he showed a great capacity for laughter even at his own expense. Ultimately, the well written jab may fascinate us but it is what happens afterwards that makes all the difference. All jokes aside, at the end of the day, he was still the adult in the room.
Certainly it was the right place and time and certainly the President gave and took equally and skewered himself the most; his ‘Lion King ‘clip as his birth video was hysterically funny and he showed a great capacity for laughter even at his own expense. Ultimately, the well written jab may fascinate us but it is what happens afterwards that makes all the difference. All jokes aside, at the end of the day, he was still the adult in the room.
I will try to be funnier. I will wear a hat…
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