I posted this in April and I wanted to post it again.
This morning I watched (video clip) Jacob Tucker an “obscure dunker” take the slam crown winning the NCAA dunk contest. This is not territory I usually cover but I’m a sucker for people who come out of nowhere and win something. Possibly it’s because I always thought I was going to come out of nowhere and win something and when someone else does it, it re-kindles the idea that it could happen to me.
I don’t really know what it is I want to win. Yes there is the obvious - lots of money, a house without dust, great sinuses, a private chef. But there’s something else nagging at me: I don't want to be ordinary.
At the very least, I want to get life right - stop doing things to look good to those who know me and cobble a stand alone balance of purposeful activity and compassion. I like compassion more than love. Compassion (if you strip the word of any nuance of sadness) implies that you have put yourself in someone else’s shoes and acknowledged his/her burden. We all have a burden. It is the sum and substance of our hidden idea of ourselves. The shadow government that defines who we are.
Jim Carey said something that stayed with me during his interview with James Lipton. He said: "We start out with an erroneous idea of ourselves and build a life around it.
We need to have at least one person acknowledge our burden. It is at the root of what we talk about and whine about and dream about. If just one person fills that need, we are satisfied and free of both the need and the burden. It could be a miraculous release.
I don’t know if I’ve got this exactly right but it’s what was on my mind on this Saturday morning while I was watching the newly minted celeb, Jacob Tucker, slam dunk king.
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