Out with the old, in with the new
Today on my NPR most emailed podcast, I heard of a guy who did all 121 possible merit badges in order to become an Eagle Scout. For comparison's sake, regular Eagle Scouts need 21 or so. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7706158
Now that's overachievement. I think back with nausea on the fights in my home-of-origin around my brother's forced march to becoming an Eagle Scout, forced by my father the devout scoutmaster. All my brother wanted was a chance to be a garden variety underachiever, but no such luck in my house. But he had to get those 21 merit badges to satisfy the ego of the father who raised him. Such are fathers and sons around the globe. Not every father and not every son, but enough to create a spiderweb of displaced dreams. I think of the Liz Phair song about flying into Chicago at night. If I were able to look down from a plane on a globe lighted only by the fathers who have pressured their sons to achieve what they did not in their own youth, it would surely be awash with light.
So, out with the old, in with the new. I have blogged less than half of what I've read in the last six months. I have great personal reasons, but reasons can have the ring of excuses almost as soon as they are set into sentences. So out with the old, the overachieving blogger of 2007 and early 2008 who blogged nearly everything she read. In with the new, the blogger who blogs where, how, and if she feels like it. Dear readers, no merit badges will be issued for consistent blogging in 2009.
May you, may I, may all sons and fathers have a new year of ease.
Now that's overachievement. I think back with nausea on the fights in my home-of-origin around my brother's forced march to becoming an Eagle Scout, forced by my father the devout scoutmaster. All my brother wanted was a chance to be a garden variety underachiever, but no such luck in my house. But he had to get those 21 merit badges to satisfy the ego of the father who raised him. Such are fathers and sons around the globe. Not every father and not every son, but enough to create a spiderweb of displaced dreams. I think of the Liz Phair song about flying into Chicago at night. If I were able to look down from a plane on a globe lighted only by the fathers who have pressured their sons to achieve what they did not in their own youth, it would surely be awash with light.
So, out with the old, in with the new. I have blogged less than half of what I've read in the last six months. I have great personal reasons, but reasons can have the ring of excuses almost as soon as they are set into sentences. So out with the old, the overachieving blogger of 2007 and early 2008 who blogged nearly everything she read. In with the new, the blogger who blogs where, how, and if she feels like it. Dear readers, no merit badges will be issued for consistent blogging in 2009.
May you, may I, may all sons and fathers have a new year of ease.
