Athletes, Film Stars, Politicians, Celebrities and Priests

"You gotta serve somebody".-Bob Dylan.

It might not be Jimmy Johnson's fault but we can... blame the hair.










What do athletes, politicians, film stars, celebrities and priests all have in common? There are a lot of people who put them up on a pedestal. They are unlike rock stars who people expect the worst from. Recently in a bar I was working with the conundrum presented by all of these groups with my genius partner. We sit, we drink and we contemplate the great issues. Occasionally we bring in outsiders. We bring them in for their outside influence. We bring them in because they sometimes pay for drinks. We bring them in because often they will tolerate out bloviating for over an hour and we are running out of people that can do that. As we run through people to assist us in our deliberations the level of the discourse has...declined.

Occasionally we convene the bar with just the two of us and we really are able to drill down on the big issues and the issue recently was WTF is wrong with our country when we are constantly disappointed in these people who we put on a pedestal? Our conclusion is that people are retarded. He and I have two different views on WHY people are retarded. My opinion relates back to a healthy interest and belief in original sin. It is a guiding principal in my life. I believe that people are fundamentally flawed and that only through God's Grace (capital G on both) are we ever righted. My drinking companion on the other hand believes that once any of us rise to a level or power and prestige that we cannot stand the temptation of using it to... enjoy life to it's fullest.

Sadly both theories have merit. If you knew me, you would know how painful it is for me to say that because I have no confidence and in most cases no time for the opinion of others, especially, my drinking companions. I view them as simple, oafish and likely brain damaged. Especially this one. But in this one, particular case his thoughts apparently have some merit. More importantly we (I) have decided that it really is of no import why our heroes have feet of clay. Feet of clay is course a reference to the book of Daniel (2:32-33) but why are we so weak as people to expect that these people are somehow not human and not frail, just like us? My theory on this point is that we yearn for people to be better then we know that we ourselves are. So we embrace Tiger Woods as perfect golfer and person, forgetting that his personae is nothing more then a creation by his publicist and NIKE to sell us something. The same is true for our politicians (all over the place), our TV stars (John and Kate+8) and of course our priests.

We have been being told this last week about the weakness of John Edwards. What a turd. I wanted to like him even though he had pretty hair. To a bald man like myself pretty hair is always a "tell" of weak moral character. He really is the kind of person only God can forgive. I remember when Gary Hart torpedoed himself through his comparatively private liaisons on "The Monkey Business". That is nothing like Edwards knocking up and old groupie, pinning it on his most loyal aid, lying to everyone about it and being so stupid as to think he might not be caught. We also got hear Blago spew obscenities as he showed contempt for anything that did not generate cash. Of course there is the guy who really lowered the bar for everyone....Bill Clinton. So in regard to politicians perhaps there is a third theory... big hair equals trouble. the evidence speaks for itself. They also are all Democrats (other then Sanford). Couldn't FOX news do something with this... in a fair and balanced way.

So at least in regard to politicians we can say that all of the bad ones have one thing in common....bad hair.

Movie stars humiliating themselves....hmmmm....hard to think of any examples....I don't know.... how about MEL GIBSON? Nuff said.

The priests are tough. They are held out by their church to be better then us. To be intercessors for us with God and if you believe that, their fall is the greatest. I am not saddled with the baggage of elevating men of the cloth. I view the Priests and Ministers and Rabbis in the same light as I view Ozzy Osbourne. A When we have pedophile priests or Lutheran Ministers with child porn on their computer I just sadly nod my head. It is a human tragedy when anyone falls and an open ended question whether of what is gained by bringing their broken humanity to the surface.

Another sinful man on another sinful day.

BOOM! That just happened.

By the way...GO ORANJE!