Weekend trivia

Ok, there’s a good reason behind this trivia.

 

I was pondering what advice I could give to my son that he could take with him forever.

I’ve come close to settling on this:

 

Don’t seek out things that will cause you pain.  Pain will seek you out.  Pain will find you.  Pain will come when you least expect it.  It will make a home and rip out your guts.  It will come on dark, stormy nights and glorious, sunny days.  It doesn’t care what kind of day you’re having.  It doesn’t care at all.  It will come.  Don’t seek it out.  There’s no need.

Rather, seek out the things that will bring you comfort.  Seek out things that will fill you up and leave you full, not things that will fill you and leave you washed out and empty.  Seek out the good and you will find it.  Reside in the good.  Guard it jealously but always share it with others and share it abundantly. 

Sharing never ever diminishes its value.  Sharing always makes it grow in part because the act itself is good, but also because it plants the seed that grows in another’s garden and bears fruit that will also be shared.

It’s far more profitable to pull from a vast reservoir of good and replicate those things than it is to pull from a vast reservoir of bad and figure out how to avoid it in the future.

Seek the good and you will find it.  The bad will seek you.  Use the good you find to defeat it.

 

That said the following lyrics are coursing through my brain on an endless loop:

 

“Promise me son

Not to do the things I’ve done.

Walk away from trouble when you can.

 

It don’t mean you’re weak

If you turn the other cheek.

I hope you’re old enough to understand.

 

Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man.”

 

This weekend’s trivia:  name that song and the artist.  No cheating, don’t Google it.

Prize for winning, as always, is a big pat on the back and a big bowl of respect and adoration from all your fellow geeks.

 

[Speaking of which, I think I’m going to auction off “respect” on e-bay and see how much it’s worth.  That’ll be fun.]

 

Of course, if you know the song you know that the irony in the lyrics is that sometimes you do have to fight to be a man.  But that’s where the artist has it wrong and why you shouldn’t live your life according to what the radio tells you.

 

You don’t have to fight to be a man.  But sometimes, after you’ve become a man (not a grown boy), you’re occasionally (very rarely) left with no option and a man (true man, not grown boy) will draw on that character to fight only when he has to and walk away when he does not.

A grown boy, on the other hand, will fight when he doesn’t have to and walk away when he shouldn’t.  The story referred to in the song, more so than the lyrics, explains that, but since the artist is one of the greatest singer/storytellers of all history, he gets a pass on that one.