I love Saturday afternoons with the lawn mower. It's the weekend afternoon equivalent of standing before the mirror each work day and shaving. Such random and unconnected thoughts. Such mental free time. Such absolute nonsense that travels at the speed of light through the cobwebby corners of my brain. You can't pay for therapy this good.
What is especially golden (and remember that Robert Frost once stated that, "Nothing gold can stay") is the occasional message in a bottle that is tossed to shore by the waves of nonthingness. Those are the thoughts that stick with me through the clean up, trash bags and weed eating after the lawn is done.
Last night my wife and I had a cup of coffee at Starbucks. We were visiting with friends. (My astute readers will remember my earlier note on Starbucks' cup philosophies...) And, yes, on the back of the paper cup holding my velvety goodness of dopio espresso was the wisdom of that sage of the age, that poet laureate of our time, Ben Kweller. Who? Exactly. You can check him out on iTunes or google him, but you'll find that he is a not so impressive young man who has had the occasional well written song on a number of soon to be forgotten albums. And what did he have to say? What wisdom did he descend from the mountain to impart? What truth for living did he want to provide on the butt-side of your coffee cup? Nothing less than this gem: "In the end we are all the same." Really?! That's it? Really Ben? You couldn't come up with anything better for the nations best purveyor of caffeinated confections? That's the best you could do? Sad.
Now I have about one hundred problems with Mr. Kweller's life philosophy, the way he "sees it." But since you have limited time and attention and I have other things to do, I'll elaborate on exactly three:
(1) Society disagrees with Kweller;
(2) The law disagrees with Kweller; and
(3) God disagrees with Kweller.
Can anyone seriously advance the argument that history and society remember Adolph Hitler and Ronald Reagan as equals? That somehow, after polar opposite lives, they were "the same in the end?" That they made an equally beneficial contribution to the world as a whole? How ridiculous. How about Mozart and Stalin? Or your mother and OJ Simpson. Of course not. In the end, society, as part of the process of historical recollection, will pass their own judgment on who is worth remembering and for what reason. There is no process of equalization and some go down (as the Beach Boys once sang) as "Heroes and Villains."
My friend, Jeff Neal, practices quite a bit of criminal law -- much more so than I do. I think I'll suggest to him that he use Kweller's line the next time he defends a rapist, a child molester or someone alleged to have been manufacturing meth-amphetamine. I can hear Neal's closing argument ringing through the rafters of the Courthouse attic -- "Judge, in the end we are all the same. Therefore, it only stands to reason that because we are one in the end, my client should not be punished in the here and now. We're all the same. As such, we should either *all* be punished or *all* shown mercy." I'm guessing I already know how such an argument would fly. In a nutshell, the law disagrees. We are not all the moral equivalent of murderers in the end. Only those who murder are murderers. We are not all the ethical end of the thief at the end of our days. Only those who stole are thieves and robbers. Quite the contrary, those who are to be punished will be punished for who they are based upon their provable actions. The rest of us are not saddled with the labels justifiably attached to others.
Finally, scripture indicates that the God who breathed creation in to life disagrees with Guru Ben. A few of the verses that would indicate that God just scored on Kweller:
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life. -- John 5:29
For you render to each one according to his works. -- Psalm 62:12
I the Lord ... give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. -- Jeremiah 17:10
When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness ... and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul. -- Ezekiel 18:27
For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Matthew 16.27
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. -- Matthew 25:34-36
Case closed. Kweller lost.
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