Thoughts of a Common Man

I listened to a radio poll today that asked the question of involvement in the presidential race. The poll was something along the lines of: "Are you following the race closely, a little bit, or not at all." Not surprisingly, most people reported to be disinterested. Why would they be interested, after all? Many of the people polled responded that it didn't matter who was in control because they were all the same. I'm not quite that cynical. Yet I wonder if the same poll was conducted regarding the new American Idol season what the response would be. The presidential poll had 7% of those polled who responded positively to following the race closely. 7% of the people care? Scary. Obama received a hell of an endorsement last week. It wasn't the union or the super delegates that inspired me - instead, it was the voice of my 14-year-old. "Vote for Obama," he told his mother. "He's a beast." Now, I don't have anything against Obama as a cand...

No wonder they made it the shortest month of the year. What happens in February? It's still cold. We're a month away from March Madness. The Super Bowl was last month. Pitchers and catchers just reported and won't play a meaninful game for over a month. It's still winter. I'm still cold. I have extra weight from another winter of hibernating. It's time to get ready for taxes. There's nothing on television. It gets dark too early. The dogs don't even want to go out. It just seems like I'll never play golf again, and that friggen' groundhog promised six more weeks of winter. We are in the middle of lent and I remember not to eat meat on Friday about halfway through my salami sandwich for lunch. Will I go to hell for that? The kids are sick of school. Everyone is sick or just getting over being sick. Some people come back from Florida bragging about fun in the sun. And here I sit. February sucks.

I saw that commercial where the guy is driving and talks to his radio, asking for his song. His passenger thinking he can catch his friend asks for Michael Bolton and a song starts. No, I don't care for Michael Bolton - but I have a few other artists who are not mainstream who make me sing out loud. Like John Denver - don't laugh - listen to him - he's awesome. I was having this conversation with my brother and he kind of looked away. "What?" I asked. "Barbara Streisand," he said. "She's awesome." We were drinking beer at the time and we laughed for a long while. Yet strangely neither of us have ever brought up the conversation again. Music is a strange thing - I like a Thompson Twins song - "Hold Me Now." They are not a rock band. I shouldn't like the song, but I do. This past Christmas - the kids bought me a copy of the CD - every other song sucks - but I do blast " Hold Me Now, warm my heart. Stay with me....." Th...

Every once in awhile I'll play the lottery. I say the same thing to my wife as I hang the ticket on the refrigerator - "Here's my ticket out of here." My wife will ask how much the prize is and she'll always let me know that she's taking at least 80% of the winnings. I've never won more than a free ticket on the damn thing. This morning, I heard the interview with the couple that just won $275 million. The wife exclaimed that they would be moving out of their trailer. They've also decided to quit work. We've all heard the horror stories about how money changes people - and we've all had the same thought - I'd be willing to give it a go. Yet, if I suddenly came into a lot of money would it be a good thing? Certainly, it would offer security to the family and I would most likely attain my lifelong ambition of getting a nap every day, but my throttle has been stuck on go so long, I wonder if it would be a good thing. I wouldn't move - I ha...

Every once in awhile a story will come across the line that will make you cringe because it is so inhumane, and so disconcerting that you won't be able to imagine the greed, hate, envy, lack of self-control or disrespect that comes with it. Uusually, I'm speaking of a murder, or a rape, or any other heinous crime. Sometimes, I'm just talking about how some men treat their own family. Marriage isn't an easy thing. It can almost be broken down to be a contract between two people who couldn't keep their hands off of each other. Sometimes, it becomes about putting a square peg in a round hole (sexual conotations aside). My wife and I have a healthy respect for some of the so-called slights in our marriage - we have a true tendency to laugh them off. I always open the discussion of marriage with a joke courtesy of George Burns - "I was married by a judge - I should have asked for a jury." I can spin around for a half an hour on what has been a problem - and my ...

When I went away to college my father explained to me that some of the people that I would meet at school would remain best of friends for life. It's hard to tell a 17-year-old anything, but I remember my father telling me that, and I was reminded of it yet again last night. One of the first guys I met at school was a fellow Italian from New Jersey. Gag and I became fast friends and we laughed a lot, drank even more, played backgammon to a thousand games, and just kind of grew up together. Through the years, we've had on and off contact, and unbelievably, we both battled illnesses with our children. My son had a tumor removed, and Gag's son was stricken with MD. Recently, we have talked more - not every day as we once did, but we are friends again and that does my heart good. Gag's son is battling MD - he's a beautiful boy with a love for the Yankees. Like his Dad (and Mom) he is positive, happy, and undeniably spiritual. The entire family is working hard to help ot...

Read a recent article in the USA Today that asked writers to sum up their lives in six words. The title of this article was my favorite one of all. Of course, it got me to thinking... Six words to sum up my life - some days it feels like: "Drinking, fun, played golf, got married." Of course, I thought of my family: "Matt, Jake, Sam, Kathy, Melky, Shadow." There is what should be on my tombstone: "I don't feel so good today." This week it could have been: "Work, work, work and more work." On my great days it is "Reading, Writing, Golf, Family and Pasta." Yet, the more I played around with it, the more serious it became - I began to wonder how I could define my 43+ years in just six small words. I finally settled on: "Lived life, Loved life, Loved Family." I could have easily gone with Born bald, got hair, bald again, but such is life.