Millionaire Politician or Middle Class Dreamer?
In a lifetime, I’d say you go through phases in life. Phases of growth, reflection, and repeat. Anything can trigger the reflection, which gets you ready for a new phase in life; it could be your first political rally featuring Bill Clinton, your first (and possibly only) serious relationship, or just a simple conversation.
Today, I had one of, maybe, 5 truly eye-opening, possibly course-changing conversations that one will be lucky to have in life.
I attended a rally with Kendrick Meek and President Bill Clinton earlier today, honestly just looking for a good time peppered with some light political conversations. I am a registered Democrat, but I honestly think this two-party nation we live in is a downright sham, but more on this later.
Now just to add a bit of depth to this story, I like Clinton. I like what he says, what he’s about, most of the changes he wants the government to make…but listening to him today, I just truly felt that I was in a convention full of politicians who really do not give two shits (pardon) about anything other than some “Democratic” agenda. I started to reflect on some of my beliefs, and started to think that maybe I should take this stuff seriously…not to support Democrats or Republicans or whatever, but to support a change in the mindset of most Americans here today. The only reason I am registered Democrat is because I agree with most things Democrats like to push. If I register Independent, I don’t get to vote during some crucial points in the game, so until that changes, I won’t budge. It is this that makes me ponder how much politicians TRULY care about the betterment of America.
But this post isn’t about politics. I merely wanted to share the catalyst. See at this rally, I ran into a former teacher at my old high school who I used to bug constantly because I tend to flock to the better teachers at a school. We shared a quick greeting, then parted ways. Just after the rally, I ran into him again (the third time this month) at Tailgaters. So he, Vincent, and I all sat together and just caught up on things. Then the conversation started to take an interesting turn.
We began talking about my old high school, and how it has fallen into the same hole that most schools in Florida (if not America) have fallen into…not caring about the students or the teachers or, dare I say, education…but scores. And politics. It is this frustrating reason that so many good teachers are not just leaving schools, but the profession as a whole. My high school, alone, lost 30 teachers, many of whom I knew personally and who truly made differences in adolescent lives. Education takes the back seat to other “issues” in the forefront of American minds.
Now we started to delve a little deeper, and bear in mind that most of what I will tell for the rest of this post came from this teacher’s brilliant mind and not mine.
We complain about having no money, lowering taxes, keeping tax cuts, raising taxes, feeding the poor, saving the world, etc. etc., but we must be the largest hypocrites, wasting our time and money on such trivial things. The teacher used an example of sports which really rung true in my mind. On average, an American will spend $40 on a ticket to a sporting event, or spend hours weekly, religiously, watching sports. Let’s take football. A person will spend around $900 on cheap-seat New England Patriots season tickets. They sit in these seats all season long, watching their Pats win game after game. Holy crap, they made it into the Superbowl. Gotta get a seat to that. Plus airfare (say they have family there, so they don’t but a room) they spend about $2100 to watch the Superbowl. Mind you, that’s roughly $3000 the NFL has charged them to watch all of these games live. The Pats get the ball…they go to the 30, the 20, the ten…TOUCHDOWN! PATS WIN!
…and it starts over. That’s it. Next season, we’ll do it all over again.
Now sure, most people aren’t like this…they’ll catch the games on the tube. The average American will spend 3 hours a week watching sports. I’ll be generous and round down to 100 hours a year the average American spends watching something that is completely null and void the next season.
God forbid someone decides to tax it further so the government can actually gain loads of money to put for good use. During one sold-out baseball game, if every person in the park gave a dollar they spent toward their ticket, they could feed a poor village in Africa for a year.
Oh, P.S.: The average salary of an athlete of the Big 3 sports (Baseball, Basketball, Football) in the USA? $2.92 million. Average salary of a teacher? $45,000 (and some teachers I know would scoff at this number).
We spend our time and money on such trivial, useless, non-contributing things, then turn around and complain and blame the government for all of our woes. We blame all of our problems on a president who has been in office for two years…but I’ll bet we don’t REALLY take a good look at ourselves and maybe think that we are major contributors.
My teacher was 100% correct on all of the things we talked about today (and I’ve only touched up on one, maybe two topics). He summed everything up at the end of the conversation by saying that Americans always look at either the Black or the White. The Republicans or the Democrats. The Good Guys or the Bad Guys. The extremes. Funnily enough, it’s the middle that runs our lives. The Grey. It’s the tide that we are forced to follow, or drown in it. This is what holds us from our true potential.
The last thing he said to me before we left really got to me. We talked about these people who are just content with having a job that they never wanted, and going home and watching TV. No exploration, no following your dreams. Just live and die. Then, he told me that just by how we interacted in high school and now, there’s no way in Hell I’ll be one of those. I am always itching to do something, to go somewhere, and I may settle down someday, but not before seeing everything that I’m worth. He told me guys like me either end up getting everything they’ve ever wanted, or stuck in the middle.
I came out of this day looking at the world from a slightly tweaked perspective. There’s no way in Hell I’ll settle for the mundane before I’m ready.
JImmy Moore said,
October 21, 2010 at 12:27 AM
Roger,
This is fantastic and I couldn’t agree more. Be careful though because when looking from a different perspective (which i often like to do), some would replace the uselessness of sports with the uselessness of theater or movies. It is one of the great quandry’s, helping the world or helping ourself? The truth is, many if not most people don’t care a lick about anything other than their own existence. Bitching about problems in the world is a way to make us seem superior to those who aren’t doing their job well. Bitching is part of being american. I believe the call it freedom of the press.
As far as living with significance, I very much feel your vibe and I agree with those who say you will not settle. You are unique, not like all others. You are like me. But with that, know that as time passes and dreams are explored and achieved and the unreachable becomes reached (I have spoken in front of thousands of people and performed on some truly spectacular stages and even attained a faux celebrity in some circles), the significance of it comes into question. For some this may never happen…but for me, Perspectives of life evolve and what previously appeared as settling for mediocrity, becomes an embracing of what is important, while perhaps exploring for the next phase of significance or purpose… (this is where I am now)
The difference between THEM and you is that you will FIRST go and seek and ATTAIN your significance and live with zest and reach the unreachable.
Its late. I hope I made sense.
Lets get lunch.
Mootart said,
October 21, 2010 at 1:04 AM
Well you should be glad you have an exciting girlfriend then.