...driving Philly’s infamous corridor of angst,
the Schuylkill Expressway, with the radio on, heard an old Elvis Costello song...I’m Not Angry....with one line
that goes: there’s no such thing as an original sin...which I’ve always
thought was kind of a clever play on words and traditional Christian doctrine...
...sin isn’t a
word I use much...associating it, as I tend to do, with traditions in which any
baby worth knowing seems to have drowned in the guilty bathwater a long, long time ago,
leaving a tub I have little interest in entering....though I do think an awful
lot about faults and mistakes...and all kindsa not particularly commendable behavior...mostly
my own...
...and, gotta admit, even while basking in recrimination
and self-loathing, I tend to look at these little blemishes on my character as
kinda special...unique, even...enough that the world might recoil in horror if
the charges against me were read in public...
...like, y’know, I’m one badass evil kinda dude...
...but, the truth is, it’s the same old tired
crap...stuff millions if not billions of people around the world are probably
guilty of at this very moment...that’ve been causing problems for a hundred
thousand years...not particularly good, maybe, nothin’ to be proud of, some of
it best apologized for, with reparations made, in fact.......but that’s all...
...like somebody I was helping with her college
application essays a little while ago, who wasn’t sure what to say about a
period of her life which was notably blank on her résumé...said she didn’t want
to mention that she drank herself into jail and rehab...which was
understandable...
...and yet, I told her, you’ve had a drinking problem....you’re not an axe murderer....half the
people on the admissions committee have probably had drinking problems....that
it was best be to simply be open about it...
...and she got in....one of those admissions officers even
noted how touched she was by the honesty of her essay...
...(it should be noted, that, even if you are an axe murderer, that’s hardly a
groundbreaking accomplishment....have you cleaved as many heads from necks as
Genghis Khan? I don’t think so....so if that’s how you’re planning on making
your mark, might as well forget it...it’s been done)...
...there’s no such
thing as an original sin....and not need to go through life as if our
faults are anything special...
1 comment:
Yes, it's pretty hard to be original in the sin department or any other department for that matter. Still, in my whole time on this earth, I've yet to meet two people who are completely alike. I find that a completely charming paradox.
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