I’ve a well-deserved reputation as misanthropic pragmatist-I
find the terms complementary, others less so. As dazzling as I see us and our
accomplishments as a species and nearly as often as a national collective
(‘Murikans!) I tend to watch almost every transaction large or small and wait
for the other shoe to drop.
I admire people for their achievements and aspirations even when their efforts in pursuit of the latter aren’t crowned by
what convention might term ‘success.’ As
someone who grew up wanting to be a cowboy, a baseball player, an astronaut and
the President all at the same time (and still my trademark application for
multitasking was denied!) I’ve watched out for David Wilson, a professional
football player for the New Jersey Giants (not a typo; they share a playing
surface with the Jersey Jets) even though it’s not really a sport for which I
have an aptitude or affection.
Wilson was in the news a LOT for an injury he suffered last
season and from which he had hoped (believed) to have made a full recovery so
as to resume the pursuit of his dream career. Earlier this week, that dream
ended as he was advised the nature of his chosen sport is such that he risked
permanent disability and/or worse if he continued, so he retired.
What moved me was the way he handled not only the news but himself in the public arena,
with the members of the working sports press, in reacting to it all. I’m NOT a
NY Post guy-Daily News was more my morning jacket, and way easier to read on
the bus and subway than the NY Times. I mention this because go back to the
Post link and look in your browser window. The Post website guys couldn’t be
bothered to slug a new page, but rather, dropped the revised text onto the
previous url.
Yeah, you’re amazed I’m being snarky after I've marveled at Wilson’s
eloquent expansiveness and expansive eloquence. Sue me.
Decades ago, I fixated
on a song from Bruce Springsteen, who has never pretended to be “New York”
anything, and his sprawling masterpiece, The River, where he wondered aloud on
the title track ‘is a dream a lie if it don’t come true?’
I think, for this moment at least, while I may not have
an answer I can live with for the rest of my days, I now know someone who can and, more importantly, will.
-bill kenny
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