It Might Be Called a Hobby

It might be called a hobby. Whenever I run across someone’s original thinking, I copy some of it for future consideration onto any notebook or scrap of paper I can find. The best way to describe what I mean will be to enter a few here and state why they deserve some extra attention.

A favorite was written by Larry McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame. He said cowboys, after reading the stories, attending Roy Rogers movies, and watching tv westerns, became influenced  by their own imitations. Media told them this was the way they’re supposed to look and act and so they fell in step.

This influence is alive today. A recent magazine ad begs, “Get the Yellowstone Look,” and enjoy the classic Western wear in the style of Kayce Dutton. I’ve never watched the Yellowstone tv program, but Dutton must be the man. We can even buy a copy of his black distressed hat for a bargain price of $539. They’ve even thrown in the dust and grime. I still laugh at the story told by the manager of the bookstore in Medora who told of one fellow who walked in fully garbed with hat, long duster, and boots with spurs. When he turned to leave one of his spurs got caught up in a bookshelf.

Unfortunately, the copycat culture extends into other significant areas. Gunplay almost always found its way into these stories. It has carried into contemporary crime stories, and now we have more guns than people. I won’t say any more about that.

A line from a Springsteen song called “Glory Days” rings true to me.  In the lyrics he visits with an old friend who in his younger days must have been a good fastball pitcher. He sings, “all he kept talking about was Glory Days, well they’ll pass you by…” 

I hear it as the song of a once-successful athlete who never got beyond the glory, never made it past the cheers of the crowd, hadn’t made much of himself and craved those days. Yes, they are out there plodding along in their dead-end jobs and craving the positive attention of the old days.

In a magazine called “Texas Monthly” a reporter had gone to Willie Nelson’s place where he sat visiting. In a nearby field he spotted a car “cutting cookies” and driving wildly in weird patterns. What in the world? Willie said it’s just Stevie Wonder driving. Even though he had a passenger with him to keep him from running into fences or tipping over in some steep ditch, he was otherwise free to steer with wild abandon. We can imagine the thrill a blind man felt to temporarily leave his restricted lifestyle and feel the speed. If in doubt just imagine it could be true.

“Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking,” said Steve Jobs. Maybe this has become a pet peeve, but when on Facebook, we cannot find much in the way of originality. To copy and paste someone else’s thinking is the common format and pronouncing it as true makes them happy. Political hazing comes too easily. If someone  digs or slams a politician they don’t like, they copy and paste it on their site and it continues to be passed along. The well-known writer Edward Abbey might’ve called this “…the ideology of the cancer cell.”

To conclude, we’ll look at an unlikely pair of gentlemen who raised the art of reasonableness to heights we seldom see of late. John Wayne, a Republican, and Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, did not see eye-to-eye with their politics. But after the 1976 election which Jimmy Carter won, Wayne promptly sent him a mailgram “congratulating the loyal opposition.” 

The night of January 19, 1977, he spoke briefly but with great elegance at the preinaugural reception: “Good evening. My name is John Wayne. I’m here tonight to pay my respects to our thirty-ninth president, our new commander-in-chief—to wish you Godspeed, sir, in the uncharted waters ahead. Tomorrow at high noon, all our hopes and dreams go into that great house with you. For you have become our transition into the unknown tomorrows, and everyone is with you. I’m pleased to be present and accounted for in this capital of freedom to witness history as it happens—to watch a common man accept the uncommon responsibility he won ‘fair and square’ by stating his case to the American people—not by bloodshed, beheadings, and riots at the palace gates. I know I’m considered a member of the loyal opposition—accent on the loyal. I’d have it no other way.”

Carter was asked to write the foreword in the biography John Wayne: The Genuine Article. He stated, "During my time in office, his correspondence, notes, suggestions, and criticisms sent my way were always respectful and heartfelt.” He went on that he was pleased to sign into law the bill ordering that a specially designed gold medal be struck in John Wayne’s honor out of gratitude for his innumerable contributions to the nation.

He further stated he was pleased and honored to visit Duke during his final stay in the hospital. Writing that foreword in 2012, his concluding words still ring true: “John Wayne frequently disagreed with me - in fact, he didn’t even vote for me. And yet, I considered him a supporter, and I was certainly an unabashed fan of his.”