First, please to enjoy the new t-shirt:
The statement will be familiar to this year’s class at Viable Paradise. For the rest of you, it relates to characters who show up in a story and are so entertaining that you forget whatever else is supposed to be going on and just pay attention to them instead. Guilty characters include Falstaff, the devil, and anyone Alan Rickman happens to be playing. Someone suggested I was a bit of a narrative usurper myself, which I don’t know is true (it presumes real life has a definable narrative, and God, whatever his other virtues, is crap at organizing his stories), but is flattering. Me and Alan Rickman, baby! Thus, the shirt. I also made one for Alan. I wonder where I should send it.
Second, thanks everyone for the kind notes about today’s previous entry, both in the comments there and on Twitter, and the various other places I’ve seen comments online. I’m glad the point I was trying to make is coming through. That said, I’ll note this before someone else feels the need to: Please, all, remember that I have shown my ass on the Internet before, and it seems very likely I will do so again in the future — although, of course, I will try not to. But like any number of people who presume to clever, I am often guilty of saying or writing something without first passing it through the “will this make me look like an entitled jackass” filter. And then, surprise, I look like an entitled jackass.
This is my roundabout way of saying that one of the reasons I wrote that last entry is to remind myself to try to be that person, the one who is aware what he gets unearned. In day-to-day life I work on it. Some days I do a better job than others. I’m sure all y’all will let me know when I’m having a bad day of it. I’ll try not to be too petulant when you do.
The Blatherations of Others