Never meet your heroes

Dear Blog Diary,
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”

This is my favorite thing Shakespeare ever wrote, from my very limited perspective.

Was Shakespeare a racist? Sure was. He hated on Jews about as much as Tarantino uses the N-word. Is Quentin a racist?

Samuel L says he isn’t because of the complexities and awe that Quentin wrote characters, at times specifically for him. In this, if you ever read the Merchant of Venice, you don’t remember shit about Antonio or Portia, while Shylock was the most compelling character.

Shylock is persecuted relentlessly and he cries out that we are all the same, good bad or indifferent.

Not developing resentment is a strength in and of itself.

Fun question from improv: Take a movie. One character remains the same actor…the rest are now played by Muppets. What movie do you pick and what character stays the same?

My first thought was Old Boy, the hallway scene. Then I thought to myself, who doesn’t want to watch Jackie Chan fight a bunch of Muppets with a weed-whacker?

It’s not news but apparently Jackie Chan has said, done, and supported some heinous stuff. Something about China, his kid thinks he’s homophobic, you google it.

I think we’re getting out of the cancel culture era but the question remains, can you enjoy the art/work/performance of a person with their imperfections? What is unforgivable? At what point is forgiveness essential?

These are open ended questions where the answers are personal. Everyone’s got a soft spot. What I will say is you gotta meet people where they're at, don’t censor shit, and don’t tell me how to feel about a subject. As fucked as they are, you rob people of being three dimensional entities.

A friend that I highly respect told me this about God, “Your worst deed doesn’t scare him and your best deed doesn’t impress him.” As an atheist, I respect.

Think of the last asshole who did you wrong.

“If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”

FYI, someone thinks you're an asshole.

E
#ARTiculate