I come from a rough neighborhood; that’s no secret. Where I grew up, people were gruff, rough, and tough. In fact, here’s a typical greeting; and seriously, no bullshit, verbatim: “Joe! How the hell are you, you fat fucking bastard? Life treating you good or what?”
Realness. You know this guy cares about Joe; asking him how he is with a not so subtle reminder that he should probably eat less pizza and start walking more. And, to get on ancestry dot-com to find his father, because all bastards should know who their dad is.
Ah, I miss that. No fake, pretentious, politically correct, empty, hoping I’m better than you are, kind of shit greeting: “Oh, hey Joe. Good to see you.” No it’s not. Shit, I hope he doesn’t talk to me. How long does it take to make a latte? Come on!
Yep. The atmosphere just got a bit shittier.
Down south, you could be on the side of the road in the rain, changing a flat tire and people will drive by and say, “Oh, bless his heart.” Useless. Meanwhile, in Philly, they’ll pull over and help you change that tire, cursing you the whole time, for getting them wet.
How about this from Anthony Jeselnik? I think this really hits the nail on the head. He says, “People see some horrible tragedy in the world and they run to the internet. They run to their social media; facebook, twitter, whatever they got, and they all write down the exact same thing: ‘My thoughts and prayers …’. Do you know what that’s worth? Fucking nothing. Your’e not giving your time, your money, or even your compassion. All you’re doing is saying, “Don’t forget about me today.”
Funny, but there’s a good bit of truth to that. I get it though. When there’s nothing you can actually do, you want to offer some words of sympathy. However, put some thought into it, instead of some canned bullshit words.
Now, at this point in my life, I’m about 50% removed from inner city Philly, so I’ve come to understand that most people are fragile, easily offended, and will gossip about you to anyone who will listen about how bad of person you are, because you use “Fuck” as a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, and pronoun and anywhere else it’ll fit. Everyone has some kind of an accent. Cursing and sarcasm is part of mine. But, in many places, it scares the shit out of people, so I try to curb the accent a bit. I fail, a lot.
But! But, I cannot bring myself to say empty things, like “Prayers”. Ugh! No, I’ll say things like this: “I’ll mow your lawn, you can stay at my house, I’ll pick up your groceries, I’m on my way over with bourbon, I’ll walk your dog, take your trash out, change your tire, pick up your kids from practice, give you money, and sit with you at the hospital.”
The weird thing is … I often get silence or a blank stare as if people don’t recognize honest sincerity and care. Remember Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality, when Stan (William Shatner) asks, “What is the one most important thing our society needs?” And she responds with what is truly important to her, “That would be harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.” Crickets. To break the awkward silence, she finally says, “And … world peace.” To which, everyone cheers.
We’ve taken the care out of care and replaced it with, “Hugs”, “Prayers”, “world peace”, and “Bless your heart”. Sympathy with no actual help.
It’s like, if I say “Bless his heart”, I’m excused from all guilt of not doing anything. It’s like saying four hail Mary’s or something. Not sure how that works, but I’ve heard things.
Sometimes we can’t help or simply don’t want to and we shouldn’t feel guilty about it. It is what it is. We’re not obligated to the universe in any way. Sometimes we help and sometimes, we don’t feel like getting wet or putting our lives in danger or on hold to help someone. It’s okay. We’re human. No worries.
But please, instead of “hugs”, say something real or nothing at all. And please don’t hit the “like” button. My fucking dog just died, dumbass. He was an ugly, fat fucking bastard, but we loved him.
With all sincerity, Namaste.
Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash
