Who Gets What They Want in This World?

After my Celtics handed the Cleveland Cavaliers the unexpected defeat last night, sending the Cavs home for the rest of the season, the big question is; Has Lebron James made his last dunk for Cleveland? Is his career over there in O-Hi-o and starting in the Big Apple next year?

I think that is such a funny word career. It’s like the word ‘towel,’ for me. If you say enough, it loses its meaning. I mean, what is career anyway? Someone’s life or someone’s accomplishments?

I have a theory. My theory is when it gets down to it; we don’t care about anyone else but ourselves.

Look at this way, Lebron James is too big for Cleveland. An entity like Lebron, the Uber-draw, needs to be shared and exploited to the greatest number of people possible, just like producing a play on Broadway instead at the Community Theater in Canton. Just imagine how much more money he can make in NY opposed to the state he was born in and where his family and friends still live. Think about how many more lives could be enriched in a greater populated area. How many more people get to say, “I saw Lebron James in the flesh and it was awesome!” Because that is what it is all about, what you and I experience in this life, and what it means to us.

Let’s go a little deeper about what we want.

Last Tuesday night after watching ‘Lost,’ I said, “WTF, who introduces new characters in the third to last episode of a series? I guess Lost does, because they did. Did I like it? No. Did it help to make sense of what is going with the wackiest island since Gilligan and the Skipper got caught in a hut’s door? Yes. Do I like the way Lost is ending up? I don’t know.

I’ve invested what, six years following Jack, Kate and the gang. I care how this show is going to end. I’m wondering if they are going to end this series correctly. That means I need answers and I better be satisfied.

Leaving the island and going across the sea and over to the shore...

The Sopranos did it right. It ended perfect. Tony and his family live on in our minds as we try to resolve where they are now and what they would be doing. A lot of people didn’t care for the Sopranos ending. After David Chase delivered one of the best written and ground-breaking TV shows of all time, people thought he should have changed that one last episode and he should have given the people more of what they wanted. What? Tony dead?  I thought it was perfect. Others didn’t.

What happens if I don’t get all my questions answered concerning Lost? Am I pissed? The only show I’ve watched religiously since the onset of ‘The Simpsons,’ and now I’m going to tell him how to do his job? How to write the perfect series? What do we want as people?

We want what we want. It is that simple.

One of the greatest movies ever made without a doubt is ‘Casablanca.’ Great cast, dialog that we’ve basically incorporated into lives as throwaway jokes or clichés we like to hear like, “We’ll always have Paris” or “Round up the usual suspects.”  Could Casablanca been made now? Could a movie be made today where the hero doesn’t get the chick? There would have to be a sequel to satisfy the hunger of the audience for what they want. We can’t leave anywhere unsatisfied. Not when it’s all about us...

We live a world where it doesn’t matter what a person has done, it is what is in it for us. What do we walk away with?

It hard to believe that crazy Dan Rather was cutting edge once, the Lebron of his game. If you are of a certain age, there’s a word naughtier than what the English use to refer to their mates as...See you next year word, this word is worse...Nixon.

Nixon was worst. He really did what people are complaining about now. He had a secret army and government. He spied on Americans. He tried to stop John Lennon from living in NY, which we now know is every superstar’s right. Maybe we all owe a great debt of thanks to John Dean, but also to Dan Rather. Nixon was riding high even while impeachment was looming. But it all change with this exchange  between Nixon and Rather when Dick was getting perturbed with the tone of Dan Rather’s questions during a White House press conference. Nixon thinking he’s being smart asked the CBS newsman “if Mr. Rather was running for office”, most liking his. Dan Rather replied, “No sir, are you?” That put an end to Nixon. It all changed after that. Nixon could be gotten to...

Dan Rather lost his job and career reporting about George Bush’s bogus military career. Whether Rather was set up or the source of his information was gotten to, Dan Rather was discredited and fired by CBS for that story. That is after spending some forty years with that news outfit. But it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t us or our career.

The Tea Party freaks me out. I’ve been in the anti-war movement for most of my life and I’ve never seen a group of activists being this readily accepted by mainstream society before like this, on this level. How can they be taken so seriously?

Oh yeah, they’re white.

Think of all the groups that have been marching and protesting since those original apple people took the first infringement of intellectual property in the Garden of Eden and then later complain that it wasn’t they’re fault. Who ever put that apple on the tree is to blame. Those two naked kids were just doing what felt right.

Teabaggers are crying about how unfair this president is. Just look at the fourteen months out of the last 244 years and you can see where this country has gone all wrong.

I am supposed to believe that all the problems we are facing now, started with Obama?

You know what the problem is? People (‘Baggers) don’t accept the ending of the last administration. In the eight years that it took to bring this country down, not one of the ‘Baggers feel that George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure hasn’t been the cause and blame of what we are facing now. Hell, we could have thousands of gallons of oil being spilled into our native waters by a Halliburton hand being involved and still not one ‘Bagger points a finger Houston-way.

Anger doesn’t flow in that direction. Somehow it’s the president’s fault. Somehow Obama has does something not wrong, but not right concerning our unctuous gulf coast. I guess it’s a matter of having the right cast and being in the right place. Obama is the perfect person to blame if you don’t understand what is going on with America right now. And the White House is the perfect local for the anger of a nation.

What are our other choices? That the reason where we are now has something to do with us? No way, when it comes to real life, we let other people write our stories. Dictate the tone and mood. What characters get heard and which ones will remain silent, or even die off. (Please not Hurley or Axelrod.)

When it comes to show biz it better have a happy ending that works for me. They better get it right, or I’m going to be pissed.

More Later...