Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Schadenfreude
I watch wrestling. I think you know that. I was watching it tonight and Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWE was giving away a million dollars. So he calls this person and gets the answering machine. Vince was happy. He took pleasure leaving a message saying in essence, "Hey fucker, you ain't home, I am calling and you could have won a bunch of dough, douche!" I bet he would love to be there when the person got home and listened to that message.
The Germans actually have a word for that:
Schadenfreude--n.-- satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.
That is a great word. You have to love the fact that the there is a single word that expresses such a base emotion. And it is a base emotion. It is a human emotion. It is the reason that it doesn't matter if the Red Sox win as long as the Yankees lose. It is the people were so happy that the Patriots lost the Superbowl. It is another way to say, it doesn't matter if I win, as long as you lose.
That brings me to something else that I watched today. I watched some of the US Open golf tournament. Tiger Woods was playing in a tie breaker match against some other guy. Hold on let me look up that other guys name because just to be fair...
Rocco Mediate
...it was a close match but Tiger won. The audience watching was kind of split. They wanted the underdog to win because the guy, Rocco, had never won a major tournament but at the same time, come on, this is freakin' Tiger Woods! Tiger is probably the best golfer ever. He had came from behind to get to the tie breaker. He was playing on a bad knee. And let's be honest, Tiger is better at golf than most people are at anything. He is better at golf than most people are at breathing. I know personally that there is nothing I am as good at as Tiger is at golf. Nothing. Not being a sarcastic asshole. Not being a waste of skin. I don't even shit as good as he plays golf.
So it was kind of cool watching him win. It was like watching Jordan play basketball. You knew you were seeing something special. There are not a whole lot of things in this world like that, where you can watch someone do something a realize you are seeing someone do something that makes them that absolute best at what they are doing. Or even watching someone and realizing that they are at the height of their powers and that it doesn't really get much better than right now. Sometimes someone does something, and you look back later later and realize how great what they did was or how monumental the achievement was. I don't think it is that often you actually can say, hey, this is something special while it is going on.
You know, I would like to be that good at something. I just don't know what it would be. I can't think of anything that I have that passion for that I would dedicate my life to becoming that good at. I don't think I ever liked anything that much to apply that much time and effort to. Is that sad? Is that what separates the greats from the rest of the masses, finding something that you love and drives you? And do you have to have the passion organically or can you make yourself be passionate about something? Can you make yourself give everything you have in the pursuit of something? Is just recognizing that there is a possibility that you could dedicate yourself to something a good thing or a bad thing?
I suppose it could be a good thing if it allows you to dedicate yourself and change things that need changing or to achieve what you have been wanting to achieve. I suppose it is a bad thing if you think that just because you weren't born with the skill, talent, or drive that you can never achieve your goals. Or I suppose it could be bad if you figure that if you can never be the best or even very good at something there really is no point in even trying anything. Ever.
Wow, maybe I should write a self help book. Not to actually help anyone but just to pose question after question. People would get sick of reading it and go out and make themselves better people. That is assuming change is possible and that you are just stuck in your rut and no matter what you do and how hard you try nothing changes.
Maybe I should change the name of this here "blog" to "Positive Thinking with Biff"? Or not.
All right, I need to end this shit on a positive note. A let's keep em happy kind of a note. So I will put a couple of pics on here that amuse me. Because let's face it, it is all about me.
Does eating these make me gay?
It looks like Pennsylvania's getting fucked
Or...
That's not sleet falling from the sky.
Laterzzz....
Labels: lighthouse, Schadenfreude, success, weather, wrestling
