6 Lessons Learned Through Shame

It has come to pass that I have not written for quite some time.  My last article was in early June when summer was ripe and the world seemed to be slowing down.  The rat race hath since caught up with me and I have been trapped in a world of scurry from A to B, forgetting to stop and take a look around at the world.  It's a shame that the world has passed by in such a haze.  Ah, I am ashamed to have been absorbed into the world of money and possessions; however, I now take the time to reflect upon this absorbed existence.  I will now present a list...God knows the world needs more of these things:

(6) It is okay to judge a book by it's cover, so long as you begin to read:
Oh, I hate cliches, they remind me incessantly of a group thinking mentality and conformity; however, using the opposite of a cliche is fun!  Lately, the girls I have been "hanging out" with have begun to find refuge in their own cliches of life.  They're main priority is the refusal of judgment...or well, criticizing others for judging them.  I see it in a different light: since they are assuming we are judgmental aren't they judging us as judgmental.  Thus, they become hypocrites, and Jesus says hypocrites suck, so therefore they suck...right?  Wrong!  I mean the world is full of people, I find this to be an indisputable point.  Beyond that indisputable point lies overwhelming evidence that every single one of these disgusting folks judges people before they get to know them.  I could show you a picture of any random person and you would immediately begin to think of a personality of this person.  And to continue this point, if I described a person you would immediately begin to picture this person in your head.  For example, if I told you about a guy I work with being a phenomenal athlete who can play basketball with the best of them.  He dominates in the post and can even shoot from the outside.  Immediately you pictured a black guy, right?  A tall black guy at that who is skinny, but still built.  If I'm wrong, then you are something I hath never encountered.  Point: everyone judges people, so don't feel like a failure if you do, but do not assumed your assumption is right.  Whilst you can have premonitions about a person they can always be proven wrong so long as you realize you are a flawed person...sagway!!

(5) You can be wrong:
"Erroneous!  How could I be wrong?  I have never met someone smarter than I, this is preposterous."  It is dangerous to be a person who always assumes to be right, because no one is always right.  This is important to learn because you gain a plethora of knowledge by using the knowledge of others...even more so, one can gain more knowledge by being wrong than through any other form.  What is the one thing you study the most, what you know or what you don't?  It's obvious.  Continuing on this point, what is the answer you remember weeks after a test, the question you got right or the one you got wrong?  This is important, especially considering the above lesson.  If you cannot accept the flawed nature of yourself than you can never see people in a different light than your first assumption and will miss out on everything the person has to offer.

(4) Character is a broken heart:
"This article sucks!  I'm not reading anymore!  I was going out with her for years and she just throws it away!  She played me!"  Easy there, hard charger.  I don't want you to think I am calling it "easy" to break up.  I actually want to convey the opposite message.  When someone breaks up with you when you didn't want to, you go through this phase I'll call a haze. First you try to act tough.  Secondly you cry.  Thirdly you try to act tough.  Finally, you vow to never talk to her again and use this as a mental remedy.  Wow, you are a typical break up, congratulations.  I am never slow to criticize this type of procedure, because it is sad.  You thought you loved this (I'll use girl here...it's a hypothetical) girl, but now you don't want to talk?  Odds are you were good friends before more than friends, right?  So what is the motivation for disregarding her completely.............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3lLYOGDsts
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, I'm sure you came up with plenty of reasons, but I have one you probably didn't think of.  It's because you are a huge pussy.

Pictured: Not What you Thought

Yeah, that's right, you're soft!  You are a baby, wahhh!  See, none of you are receiving the message, being the bigger person is what makes you...well, the bigger person, to be blunt.  I mean you can tell you are the bigger person by the way that you are.  Anyways, if you forgive the person who "breaks your heart" you will find their friendship to be rewarding.  Sure, it'll be hard, but that's why not just surviving a broken heart, but coming back to show you are the bigger person is true character.  This is kind of a sagway.

(3) Your life is not only about you:
"Gah!" I know I have confused you again, but as is customary I will not leave you with a this befuddled state.  Lesson #4 does not mean what you think it means but means you need to think.  You see, what I am saying is your life is not fulfilled solely through yourself.  Only by being with other people can you live, and I mean LIVE!  Hermitage is no way to subsist, for if no one knows you exist, do you?  Now, please, do not go commit suicide because you have thoughts that no one notices you, because you are wrong in thinking this.  I mean life is full of different people and there is no one in the world who cannot find another to take refuge in.  Whether it be a parent, guardian, friend, spouse, or relative; there is somebody who sees you and appreciates who you are.  So now it is up to you.  Be a go getta!  Make relationships, because being with others is what makes life fun, not sitting and blogging by yourself.

(2) It's okay to have fun!
Who says this article is full of shit?  Look here, a lesson that says "fun", that's a good thing.  Seriously, have fun.  Don't be afraid to go crazy and occasionally go a little too far.  Step outside of what your parents may want you to do.  Go over the speed limit...I think it is time for another lesson.


(1) Saints and Poets...maybe
I will do my best to distribute this message.  There is life, not able to be questioned, this point.  The true question is, when will it end?  You don't know, I don't know, John Woo doesn't know, and John Wu is clueless.  Thus, it is important to take every day seriously.  I mean why half ass?  You could die in a car crash on the way home from school, so why shouldn't you go all out on that test?  It is not a matter of tomorrow, because today is not yet yesterday.  The world is full of opportunity, but do you understand what life is about?  The title of this lesson comes from Our Town by Thornton Wilder.  The message is only saints and poets realize they are living life.  Only these two groups of people understand they are subsisting.  Pretty deep, huh?  Which means there is a good chance you do not understand why you are living, because a vast majority of us are not saints nor poets.  Hope is still there, because of people like Thornton Wilder who point such things out.  Do you know why you live yet?  Is it to grow up, get married, have kids...The American Dream, right?  Hahahah, I am laughing at your naivety.  Life has nothing to do with this, it is about being happy.  Don't you understand?  Money is worthless, fame is disgusting, and beauty is nonessential.  These three things are bastards because they creep into out mind as being priceless and indispensable to living a successful lifestyle.  How come one be successful without money when "successful" is synonymous with "wealthy"?  Easily, actually.  The happiest man I have ever met was my 11th grade English teacher.  He was an English teacher, obviously not the wealthiest man on planet earth.  The world is so caught up in wealth.  Us low lives idolize the super wealthy as demigods, if not utter immortals.  We are being fooled by society today.  We have been snared by the fetters of our culture.  Please, I beg of you, do not be entrenched in the quagmire that is today's culture.  Live for happiness, live for your own gratification (which remember can only be obtained through others), and live.  Do not take anything for granted, because who knows when it may be taken away, or when you will be taken away.  Life is about putting everything into it in order to find something which makes you happy.  Carpe Diem, seize the day, and believe that life is more than fame, beauty, or wealth.  Know why you are here.

The Greatest of All-Time? There is no such animal...

As LeBron James and the Miami Heat inch toward an NBA Championship (incessantly giving the Dallas Mavericks opportunities, the series tied 2-2 when the Heat could be Champs already, squandering 4th quarter leads and opening the door for the world's longest use of parenthesis) the usual debate has arisen: LeBron versus Jordan...whose better making them the best player in the history of the game, theoretically.  Truthfully, sports has had very few debates about the greatest players in respective sports.  Baseball's greatest is Ruth, Soccer's is Pele, and Boxing's is Muhammad Ali...but how indisputable is the greatness of all of those players?  Think way back to the 1960's-1970'.  The greatest hockey player of all-time?  Bobby Orr, without question, that was the rumor.  No one could touch Orr, he was the greatest.  The year Orr retired, there was a rookie in the NHL named Wayne Gretzky.  "The Great One" soon became without question the Greatest Player in Hockey history.  No debate, it was Gretzky.  All the Bobby Orr disciples barked, "If he played against Bobby, he'd be a fraud."  Maybe, but we'll never know, will we?  It wasn't that Gretzky was better or that Orr was better.  It was simply people who watched Orr thought he would always be the greatest and the ones who grew up watching Gretzky play drew the opposite conclusion.  Such is the world of sports.  There is no such thing as a greatest of all-time.  Maybe the purest example is Babe Ruth.  The Great Bambino!  The Sultan of Swat!  He cannot be touched...but he played in an era without African Americans.  In fact only whites were allowed to play baseball when Ruth was making his history.  What if he had to face pitchers like C.C. Sabathia or Johan Santana (before he became bad) and pitch to hitters like every hitter in the MLB today since whites don't exist.  What if Ruth was standing in the box as Aroldis Chapman threw 105 at his head, probably wouldn't have been quite as dominant, but once again it's all speculation.  I wish we could plug Ruth into today's MLB and see how he does, but it isn't possible.  The fact of the matter is that everything is a bias.  Those who grew up during the Jordan-era echo unquestionably that Jordan is and always will be the greatest.  "He has six rings!  Call me up when Baby Bron Bron equals that!" is the unmistakable call of a Jordanian...but what does a ring matter in the end?  If rings are the benchmark isn't Bill Russel The Greatest?  I mean he won 11 championships, five more than Jordan for those who are challenged by arithmetic.  People of the 80's and 90's watched Jordan create an environment never seen in the NBA.  They bought his shoes, they pretended to be him in the driveway, and above all they watched him play.  That's why Jordan is the greatest to those people, because he is.  Jordan changed the environment of the NBA.  People say LeBron is more selfless and a better rebounder.  "Three inches and forty pounds probably help in the rebounding arena.  And a better passer?  Nah, he's a guy who doesn't want the ball.  Just because he wants to dish it off and let Dwayne Wade make or miss the shot doesn't make him a better passer!" says the Jordanian.  "Michael was accountable, he wanted the rock.  LeBron is scared to be a failure in the media thus making him into a coward on the court".  If you watched Game 4 this argument is impeccable.  However, a facilitator who scores 26.7 a game is worth a look.  And you cannot blame LeBron for being bigger than Jordan.  That's the law of the basketball jungle 99% of the time, size wins.  In the end we watch as LeBron tries to get his first of six championship rings.  The teens who never saw Jordan take a jumper snap at their fathers who call Jordan the indisputable king of basketball.  How can anyone be right?  Times change, players change.  Could LeBron have won 6 titles with Pippin, Rodman, and Kerr?  Could Jordan have accomplished the same feats as LeBron in Cleveland and then made it to where he is with Wade and Bosh?  It's naive to argue because we'll never know.  It's silly to debate because there is no comparison.  6 rings? Cool, at least LeBron was on his varsity high school team Sophomore year.  Take that.  Six Rings...it'll never end because people won't let it.  Even if LeBron wins 6 or more Championships the next generation will yield a 7-footer who can stroke it from 3 and score 40 a game, but I mean he just isn't LeBron.  The kids of that era will sputter about how LeBron couldn't rebound the way so-and-so can.  How he scored less.  The kids of this current generation, "where are so-and-so's 6 rings?"  In sooth, the 7-footer won't be as good to us because he isn't LeBron.  It wouldn't be because he isn't better than LeBron.  Which is why LeBron isn't better than Jordan, it's because he isn't Jordan.  There cannot be a greatest player of all-time because there is no omnipresent fan who has seen every NBA game and can relate to every play made by LeBron and every play made by Jordan.  Everything's a bias because in my generation it was someone else.  LeBron is never going to be as good as Michael Jordan in the minds of the fathers of today.  Not because of 6 rings, but because LeBron is not Michael Jordan.

Truth Will Out

Ho, hum how the mighty have fallen.  Who is Jim Tressel?  Tressel is one of the most respected coaches in college football.  He has tenured at The Ohio State University for 10 years and has kept the school in the national spotlight all those years.  His winning percentage is an astounding 106-22 at OSU.  He made differences.  The best thing about James was his class, honestly, and integrity.  He is a man who always stays straitlaced, never allowing his players nor himself to step out of line.  He has an iron-fisted hold on the Ohio State community.  He brought OSU a National Title, remember?  All the way back in 2002, his only National Championship, but I mean that's alright.  Tressel's teams always competed.  They never came up too short.  A terrible 2004 was followed by a Fiesta Bowl win and then back-to-back appearances in the Title game.  They lost both, but hey, the Bucks were there.  A loss the next year and suddenly people were getting skeptical about Tressels conservative style.  He played the game too close to his sweater-vest.  Thanks to back-to-back BCS Bowl game wins (Rose and Sugar) Tressel kept his job at OSU.  He appeared to have one of the top teams in the country coming back for 2011-2012...but then everything unraveled.

Somehow involved

Everything spiraled when some tattoos of Terrelle Pryor were investigated and found to have been acquired using monies traded for his Big Ten Championship ring.  Oooooh...how terrible.  Terrelle Pryor sold his own property to get tats, utterly unacceptable.  Anyways, the super duper NCAA decided to continue deciphering the situation at Ohio State and found a couple more players were guilty of selling their possessions earned through football in order to ink themselves up.  Sigh, it was a sad day in Buckeye land.  The student athletes were punished via five game suspension.  Luckily Ohio State's first five games: Akron, Toledo, Miami Florida, Colorado, and Michigan State.  It's not too bad when your toughest game is going down to visit an average ACC team in the midst of coaching catastrophe.  So the Bucks were looking alright at worst.  Then the entire world collapsed upon the University...or well, upon James.  Jimmy Tressel was investigated, and found to have had known about the terrible, horrible, and grotesque crimes committed by the athletes for months.  The NCAA was furious and suspended Tressel for the same five games.  The world seemed to settle back into place, but the world could not forgive Jim Tressel.  The Ohio State scandel turned into Watergate II.

Pictured: Jim Tressel?

The crimes committed were soon forgotten, mainly because of how insignificant they were, and it was the cover-up which led to mass hysteria.  Tressel had known, and not told...similarly Richard Nixon had known about C.R.E.E.P.'s plans and had kept them clandestine.  This is unforgivable.  This is truly unacceptable (sarcasm is not being used right now, unlike earlier when talking about the athletes crimes, do try to keep up).  Tressel proved he was not the man he tried to appear.

Trustworthiness ≤ amount of sleeves on sweatervest

It's truly a shame.  I'll continue to preach the similarities between Tressel/OSU and Nixon/Watergate respectively.  First, it cannot be denied both men were able leaders who had brought their respective offices honor.  Nixon had been the greatest president since FDR and Tressel's accomplishments are listed above including his 82.8 winning percentage.  Secondly, both situations were unnecessary.  Nixon was going to be re-elected and Ohio State has the prestige and players to suffer through the loss of five, no matter who they are.  Thirdly, both men were blinded by the greed for victory.  Nixon wanted re-election and Tressel wanted wins.  Fourthly, neither men were involved with the crime.  Nixon was charged with obstruction of justice for covering up the actions, not being involved and Tressel probably did not go around advertising the sale of the player's merchandise (although it is still debatable).  Fifthly, both men had been previously been understudies at their institutions.  Nixon was the Vice President for Dwight Eisenhower and Tressel was OSU's top assistant from 1984-1985.  Sixthly, the cover-ups were worse than the crimes.  Pointed out earlier, the crimes committed were pretty nonsensical.  C.R.E.E.P. had attempted to steal information from the Democratic National Party, but failed.  The organization compiled very little information in the one and only spy mission.  For OSU and Tressel, it as players selling their own EARNED awards and rings.  In both situations, the clandestine actions far outweighed the crimes, especially when the crimes were unnecessary.  Seventhly, and most important, both crimes were the resulted of dishonesty.  This is pretty obvious, but both men chose to be dishonest.  All Tricky Dick needed to do was tell everyone he had nothing to do and reveal everything that had happened and he would've been re-elected (I mean he was anyway).  All Tressel needed to do was tell everything that had happened and he would've been praised for his honest actions, the way he had all throughout his career.  It's a shame.  The final similarity is that both situations ended with resignation.  Tressel will go down in infamy, a villain who disgraced The Ohio State University and the honor which its name carries.  He may never work again in College Football.  The NCAA will no longer have James Tressel to kick around.  So it goes.

We're not a crooks