Don't Look Back
That quote is from Better Off Dead, a 1985 teen romantic comedy where John Cusack's character (Lane Meyer) is suicidal after his girl friend breaks up with him. It is a strange mix of surreal black humor peppered with the absurd which make it unique, and funny to me (then and now.)
As I'm wont to do, I replied to Big Boy's post, adding my own Better of Dead quote. This got me on the feed and I saw other comments throughout the day, until Big Boy posted something else, and everyone, but me, moved on.
I was stuck pondering the fact, with a gazillion channels on today's cable landscape, why I never run across Better of Dead.
Granted it isn't the best movie ever, an acquired taste for sure, and I even read that John Cusak hated the finished film. Still I don't think that is what keeps it off the air. I think it has to do with the movie not being politically correct by today's standards.
Flash back to 1983 where I took study hall with a girl who was, what I called then, a Jesus freak. Her name was Kathy. With a K. And she was taken with the Think Jesus movement going on at our school which was funded by a very large Southern Baptist Church. They had bumper stickers. T-Shirts. The whole bang. They'd even serve high school (we had an open campus) kids lunch one day a week at an extremely cheap rate to push their movement. Kathy often discussed the church, their program, and all things religion with the study hall teacher, Mr. Combs, who ironically enough, didn't need one. The man was cue ball head bald. Mr. Combs wasn't necessarily a Jesus freak, but he was extremely devout. He also had an old school At 10-2 and 4 O'Clock, it's Dr. Pepper time clock in his room. The things I remember.
I was staring at said clock, wishing it was get the fuck out of there time instead of Dr. Pepper time, when Kathy told Mr. Combs she wished she would die. Not in a suicidal sort of way. She quickly noted that. Because killing yourself got you sent to hell. And in hell she couldn't be with Jesus. Which is why she wanted to die sooner than later. To be with Jesus.
This was seriously discussed for nearly the entire study hall hour. Can you imagine what would happen if that happened today.
Mr. Combs, to his credit, didn't freak. He explained, in a very kind, devout way that she had a lot of life left to live. if Jesus meant so much to her she should live her life in a way that served him and the church. He went on to remind her that if she died, she'd be leaving people behind who would undoubtedly be very sad.
Flash forward two years, to what was then 1985, where I was taking a throw away psychology class taught by a coach. Not to imply all classes taught by coaches (other than gym and/or drivers ed) suck. One of my best high school classes (history) was taught by a football coach. That class though, was the exception. In my high school most classes taught by a coach (other than gym and/or drivers ed) sucked. The coaches were a warm body filling space until practice or the game.
That was psychology.
Which was bad. We didn't learn anything about psychology, other than what we read on our own in the text book. Instead Coach Pryor would treat the class like a study hall, and/or share his religious views with the class. At the time, there was somewhat of a revival going on at my high school. The Think Jesus had flourished and coupled with a strong FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) movement. People were swept up in it, fad like, which I found odd and a bit disconcerting because even aboynamedstu v17 got that most of the kids who were the most zealous were pretty much doing all the depraved shit that they claimed was going to send everyone else to hell. Another thing that struck me as odd, was that one of the biggest rallying cries of the movement was how bad rock-n-roll music was to us kids. To the point of some churches staging record burning parties in their parking lot. To get rid of all those devil records with the back masking messages. This was on Coach Pryor's mind one fine February morning when he told us that he let his kid listen to KMOD (classic rock station in Tulsa that played a lot of the offending albums) in his room during the day and evening. But at night. When the kid went to bed, Coach Pryor snuck in and changed the radio to (insert popular Christian station that I can't remember) so his kid would hear the good programming while he slept. Because, and this is the best part, which I can recall after all this time, Coach Pryor didn't want his kid to hear stuff like...like...(he stammered, I can still see him standing in front of the class in his bike coach shorts complete with camel toe, white shirt tucked in showing his flabby belly, and tube socks that came up to his knees)...like...like...Smokin'.
Seriously. Smokin' by Boston.
That might have been when I first coined my favorite expression. Fuck me!
Even though I didn't agree with Coach Pryor. And I thought Kathy was nuts. I respected their views. And was cool with them sharing what they believed. That's what makes the world go around for aboynamedstu. It is also why I have been so stuck on Big Boy's random post about Better of Dead. To the point of not posting anything on this here BLOG for a long long time.
My point. Finally (thanks to those that stuck around!)
Suicide isn't funny. I get that. But our world has become so politically correct that we we've lost the ability to discuss things. Because we're afraid of not being politically correct. We can't laugh at certain things. Even though laughter is the best medicine. And we often laugh at what scares us.
That's why you can't catch Better of Dead on TV anymore. Or at least that's what aboynamedstu believes. Which is flat out, fucked up. And a disservice to many.
I told you all of that, for this BLOG reader. It is a resolution of sorts for me in 2012. I'm going to speak my truth in a more in your face way this year. Here on this blog. I don't know if it is because I'm forty fucking four, or it's because I've been working closely with Youth at church for the past five months, but something has clicked in my head. Which is kind of scary, because I've never been one to not speak my truth. But I have compartmentalized what I've discussed here, and there. So, stay tuned BLOG reader. Should be interesting. And I figure worst case scenario, whomever I piss off, it won't matter much come December 21st (if the Mayans are correct.)
Until I BLOG again...A new day is breakin', it's been too long since I felt this way, I don't mind where I get taken, the road is callin', today is the day.
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