Posted 2:44 am Sunday, July 08, 2012
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Dry Spells: Help Me, Help You, Help Me
One of the flashy news stories of late is actor Tom Cruise splitting with his wife Katie. Can't really say anything about it is surprising, but it must be tough to try to live a normal life with that much fame.
One of my favorite movie lines was the pitiful moment in the move "Jerry Maguire" when Cruise's character looked at Cuba Gooding's character, Ron, and pleaded "Help me, help you." What he really meant was let me show you how to help me. Ron laughed and doubled over at the plea and the scene ended with Jerry storming out angry.
I once jokingly tried the same approach when I wanted something with the crass line but added an addendum by saying to the person I was talking to, "Help me Help you Help me." We both got a pretty good laugh out of the deal. The more I reflect on the statements the more it seems to be one of those never ending statements that continues to mean the same thing no matter how many help me's or help you's are added.
Kinda like trying to figure out the end of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. You can never really be sure when the darned thing is over. Can you? Or is it just me?
If I were, for instance, to say to a person I wanted a defined outcome from the following:
"Help me help you help me help you help me help you."
It would still totally mean the same thing as the original statement and intent used in the movie.
Don't ask me why this came to mind other than a really dry spell which seems to have come out of nowhere lately. Nothing really helps.
Three years ago when this column started, it was all because a guy from Texas on a TV show was really a scoundrel and it seemed the right thing to do to call the attention of the readers of this newspaper to see if I was the only one who felt the way I did. Or, to put it another way, to find out if it really was just me? Or if, perchance, it was you too?
Occasionally I look at Elizabeth and ask her if it is just me and she replies faithfully that it probably is. Actually, she takes me seriously about almost everything I bring to her, which I have abused religiously for the better part of the last 27 years. Somehow she keeps putting up with my foolishness and impishness and lets me enjoy punching her buttons.
Thankfully many of you have written back to say, in fact, it was you in addition to me. This has helped me greatly in preserving my sanity to know I am not the only one who sees this life through the quirky lens of my mind. It also lets me know I don't have to make up any imaginary friends to check all this stuff out with. Some of you are a little quirky too. Thank God for that.
There is much left to discuss and do with this little conversation we continue to have each week. ne reason I can clearly identify as a reason for a bit of a dry spell is my 13-year-old Jamie has been gone to camp for three weeks now. We will pick him up next week and I should almost immediately be back in the chips. The boy has faithfully kept me in material since the time he first began to talk. I realize I have been missing him a good bit. The older kids are just not around as much these days, and within six weeks Rachel will be shipping off for Austin to attend The University of Texas.
Cal was home a good bit this last week and we had some fun listening to some album rock on a road trip. We even had a moment to ponder the fact that Katy Perry is quite talented, although we never made eye contact during the discussion. That just would have been well, a little too quirky.
It surprised him I was familiar with her work but I stay in touch with the pop culture music through spin class at my gym and I caught a preview of her upcoming movie when I went to see "Bernie," along with everyone else in East Texas.
That is one funny movie if you're from around here. The downside is it makes East Texans look a little more country than we really are. I mean I thought it was pretty low when the guy from Carthage was talking about how those people from San Augustine drank warm beer and ate mud cats. Everybody knows the best catfish meat comes from channel cats, and the way you know the difference is by looking at the indention in the tail of the fish. It was just low.
This is something even my friend from Gilmer, who tries to say he is more country than me, does not know.
Sarah came home this weekend for a visit, as well, so I'm getting a little bit of everyone in small doses. I can survive these dry spells with the knowledge that someday the bonus on top of the bonus of having four children should be I will have a decent number of grandchildren when the time is right.
As far as having dry spells go, I hope it is just me.
See you next week.
