POST TITLELESS - 2005-11-22 | 2005-11-22
I wish I hadn't said some people don't have a life.
I remember one good friend who was holding his first baby in his hands and saying he hadn't known what life could be. I also remember when, some years later, he shot himself to death with a shotgun in his front yard.
Everybody thinks somebody else has a life. The married man with responsibilities envies the "free" bachelor. The bachelor feels lonely and cowardly for not having a family.
Derek, you REALLY have to give me a BREAK. I am very happy that you and Peter called me on this. The last people I need as blog raders are people who have heavy family commitments and can only treat the life of the mind as a passing hobby. So what I did was to accuse myself and those who are doing exactly what I say needs to be done of not having a life.
This world cannot be saved by people I said "Have a life." That life will be meaningless unless people like me who say we don't have a life do our jobs.
I have led a very rough existence. Parodying oneself is what every comedian who has had a hard life does. It is a defense mechanism, if I may use psycho speech. Humor is a way to survive. But sometimes in parodying myself I just plain screw up.
Anyone who lives a life of the mind pays for it. People you want to have a relationship with want you to concentrate on THEM, not on ideas.
Life is choices, and this is one of them.
Tim warmed my heart by poiting out that he was one of kids I was fighting for in my battle against busing. Nobody "with a life" could have done what I did.
I alone, and there is no question on this one, prevented the IRS from putting racial quotas on private schools. It was one of htose things I did when I could have been home with my wife and I wouldn't be divorced now. But hundreds of thousands of kids were spared the Hell Hole Tim went through.
And, Tim, while I couldn't help you, we did put brakes on it. I went to a white trash school and I have worked in prisons. I can only imagine what you went through being bused into the ghettoes. A child in that environment might as well be in a prison with hardened criminals, except that the criminals are watched more closely and the thugs you faced were considered innocent.
Unlike many a married man, I am satisfied with what I did do in my life. Very few people can actually say that.
More above.