Death in Teheran

I am currently reading a powerful book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  I don't want to get into the book too much because I would like to post my review of it when it's complete.  However, I felt like sharing this small passage I just read which will leave you wanting more.

The book is broken up into 2 parts.  The first part is about his time in numerous concentration camps during WWII and the second part is about a theory of his called logotherapy.  This is the passage I'd like to share:

Does this not bring to mind the story of Death in Teheran?  A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants.  The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him.  He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening.  The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse.  On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, "Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?"  "I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran," said Death.

I am not afraid to admit that I re-read this small passage a few times before continuing on.  After reading it I came up with two theories regarding the passage and its connection to Frankl's experience in the concentration camps.  The theories are either the servant is allowing fate to take its course, no matter what the outcome is or being a servant is so bad that he would rather die.  In this situation, I really don't think there is a right or wrong answer, its all in how you interpret the situation they are in.

In this book there is a constant battle of fate vs reality.  While many prisoners give up on themselves, they are also giving up on life.  To be clear, I am not judging them for giving up on life and nor should anyone else.  But in a situation like a concentration camp or a servant to a rich a powerful persian, they think riding the "fastest horse to Teheran" is the only option they have.  Once you quit finding a reason to live, what you often find is death.  The thought of ones family often kept them alive because they had something to live for.  This is the same for professional artists or authors.  But the key to survival is keeping these thoughts at bay because if you loose them, it becomes very hard to search for meaning in your life. 

The other way to view this passage is through the eyes of fate, which is the way Viktor Frankl decided to live his life.  If the SS Officers had a list of numbers (which the prisoners in the concentration camps were known by) for people to get on a train to head to another camp, Frankl would go with no hesitation.  Even with the mystery of wether or not the new camp had gas chambers or a chimney, which was an indication of a crematorium, he went because if he were to die, it would be his fate.  In comparison to the Death in Tehran passage, one could see the servant fulfilling what his fate had planed for him.  Who is one to decide if to die or not when Death says its time?

If you could imagine what these people when through, where would your loyalty be?  Would you be a realist and give up on life when the life expectancy during the winter seasons is about 12-14 days? Or would you live your life and let fate decide ones life?

Last Week

Random thoughts from last week

American Idol

Something that really bothers me is when I hear people say that "American got it wrong, Adam should have won..."  We live in a democracy folks and that gives every eligible American the chance the vote.  So saying that America got it wrong is basically saying your a sore loser.  Technically, in these circumstances, the only way for that to happen is if America was to cheat and homey don't play that. 

We all have favorites.  I'm sure all the Danny Gokey Fans are saying he should have won along with all 15 Megan Joy fans said the same.  The fact of the matter is, America got it right.  More fans votes for Kris, not to be confused with Chris (the correct way to spell it for a man), making him the new American Idol.  To sum it up in 7 words and 5 !'s for all you fans of American Idol non-winners: SUCK IT UP YOU BIG FAT BABIES!!!!!

Yankee Stadium

On Tuesday I made it out to the new Yankee Stadium for the first time.  The tickets were comped for my birthday from Christopher Wieland and I'd like to formally thank him on my blog.  Talking about how nice the stadium was is a little cliche.  Every new stadium is going to be nice and Yankee Stadium was no different.  So what I want to talk about is the feeling I had when I was there.  When you walked into the old stadium, there was this sense of achievement and historic relevance.  After all, they did win 26 world championships while playing there.  On the contrary, when entering the new stadium there was a feeling of mystery, of what could and/or will happen under the bright lights of the new Yankee Stadium.  And this really intrigued me.  I'm not talking short term.  I'm not talking about what they are going to accomplish in the 2009 season but in a new stadium, a new "House that _ _ _ _ _ _ _  Built", anything is possible and we can see it happen from the beginning.    

Golf

On Sunday I went to the links for the first time this year.  Accompanying myself was Mr. Bingman and Mr. Murphy.  This golf outing was all weather permitting and at about 11am, I started making the calls because we caught a break in the weather.  Call Jon, call Murf, BOOM, already got 3 of the four missing parts.  Finding the last player to come golfing was probably the hardest thing we did all day.  No one could play. There were people sick, in Queens, having their phone stolen by their dumb manager as a dumb prank.  All we wanted was a forth to come smack some golf balls around and not one person took the bait. 

Enough about our forth man problems, let me talk about how I shot.  I shot 4 over the best score I ever had on that course which is very good for the opening round of the season.  But what I am most proud of is my first ever birdie.  It was hole 17, coincidentally the shortest hole on the course.  I have been hitting my 8 iron very well all day and this tee shot was no different.  I struck it pure and landed, from my estimations, 12-14 feet from the pin.  It was a left-to-right putt slightly down hill.  I was putting above average that day so this putt didn't phase me the least bit.  My main focus was not to over shoot the hole and just let the green carry my ball.  To my surprise, that is exactly what happened.  The green carried my ball into the cup and I let out a scream of joy only a man who made his first birdie ever could make.

P.S. If you are not yet a faithful follower of the What Would Festy Do? blog, please visit my follower section bellow Videomania at the bottom of the page to show your support.  In addition, please don't be shy to visit www.if-randomness-had-a-gun.blogspot.com/ and check out my friend Jon's blog.

In Festy We Trust

2 Long Years!!!

It was a warm, clear night and all I was thinking about was having a good time with my family.  We would all meet up for my cousins 25th birthday party at Lucky Strikes (1/3 Bar, 1/3 Restaurant, 1/3 Bowling Alley, 3/3 Awesomeness) in the Palisades Mall.  Good times and lots of drinks were had.  The night was Saturday, May 12, 2007, the last day I consumed a drop of alcohol.

That night, I can't tell you how many Blue Moons I had drank.  All I know is a few weeks after the party my uncle said to me, " I told the waitress we didn't order these (Blue Moons) and she said we did, specifically you and Bill.  And then I look at the number of Blue Moons and there was 17 of them GOD DAMN THINGS!!"  At first I felt really bad but then become funnier the more we talked about it.  Sorry Uncle Frank.

When most people quit drinking, it might be because of something that happened.  Maybe they drank too much and received alcohol poisoning or drank themselves into a chapel where the got married to their best friend by Elvis.  Thinking of the alternative, I am lucky that I stopped drinking on a good note.

I don't know how many people read my blog and of them, I don't know how many know why I really don't drink.  One of the reasons I stopped was because I found myself drinking too often.  I use to have a mini-fridge in my room that I stocked up with beers.  With a fully loaded fridge, I would have a beer whenever I wanted.  During the summer time when it's nice and hot, this is a normal thing to do.  But I would have them on nights when I didn't need them.  And this is all along with all the drinking my friends and I did at the bar.  Plain and simple, I just didn't want to be "that guy".

Another reason I stopped drinking was for some health reasons.  I don't want to get into a full medical history of myself, but I was doing all four of the main things that cause Acid Reflux Disease, including drinking alcohol.  Anyone who has or had acid reflux knows it sucks so preventing it was something I really wanted to do.  So at this point in my life, I felt like my alcohol consumption was more then a personal problem, but a health problem too.

I think in the first year, I did not miss drinking at all.  You get the cravings every once in a while but nothing like my second year.  This past year has really been a struggle.  I find myself wanting a cold beer or a nice glass of wine after work all the time.  And I have to say, there were times when I came close to having one.  I never had a beer in my hand, ready to chug, so it wasn't that close, but some serious consideration was had before I said no.

I hope by reading this post that my friends realize that it is nothing personal if I decide not to join you guys at the bar.  Sometimes it makes it harder for me if I am in that kind of setting to stay true.  However, the last thing I want is for them to change their plans to suit me.  I don't want that and I don't think they would either lol.  There are plenty of other things we do together that is in a more Festy Friendly environment. 

This post is not to show off what I've done.  I don't like to point myself out and say "Look what I did!!!!".  But what I accomplished today is something that I am very proud of and I wanted to share it with all my faithful blog readers.  Thank you all for your continued support during my journey.

In Festy We Trust

Greatness

The theory of greatness has always intrigued me.  Now with the access to tv and internet, finding out about the greatest professors, thinkers, presidents or kings, athletes or actors is only a click away.  

It is very easy for athletes to gage how great they are.  No one keeps better records then professional sports and you can probably attribute that to all the "great" record-geeks out there.  The reason why they can gage it so easily is because most of the time its a tangible record.  The athlete could be the youngest player to hit 500 home-runs, or a record I just heard this morning that Lebron James was the first MVP to lead his team in just about every category: points per-game, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks and probably a few more.  When you take the Yankees of the late 90's, they were slated as one of the greatest teams of all time.  They won 4 out of 5 World Series and if I remember correctly, most of them were in dominating fashion.  This kind of stuff can be seen and evaluated on the spot, in current time but there are other people who's recognition of greatness will have to wait.  

My main concern is for the professors and thinkers because they spend their entire lives devoted to coming up with theories that may or may not be socially accepted when it was presented, but has an enormous impact on today's society.  I can honestly say that I can not think of a theory that a person has come up with within the last 20 or so years that has changed my life.  By all means, please inform me if I have over looked something but as for now I stand tall in my comment.  The reason why I'm saying this is because when thinkers like Sigmund Freud and Viktor Frankl come up with the theories of the unconscious mind or logotherapy, respectively, how well accepted were they at that time.  In the present time, could we be looking over some of the greatest ideas and theories man has ever come up with?  And if we are, is it naive that we don't notice and/or accept it now?  

There is a question that I most often ask myself and I am using this platform to show the readers what goes through my mind.  I always ask myself if I am a leader or a follower.  And there is no clear cut answer.  Some would argue that if there is no clear cut answer then you can't be the leader and are a follower by default.  The reason why I am bringing this up is because I feel that this is one of the factors that helps suppress one's belief in something.  Freud, Frankl, our founding fathers, civil and women's rights activists and many other key figures are all leaders.  They all came up with a theory or stood up for a cause that would make them live on in history.  But these people weren't accepted by the public with open arms.  We'll take our founding fathers as an example.  Breaking away from Great Britain was something everyone wanted to do with none of the penalties (WAR!).  At that time, there was no national army for the 13 Colonies.  It was all individual militias running around with rifles or hopefully at least pitchforks.  So George Washington and John Adams who were both crucial parts in building our nation, had to convince the colonies that this was a good idea and that was no easy task.  

Even after the war, after we won our independence from G.B., the colonies struggled more then ever before because they didn't have a direct line of supplies, much of which came from the same country they just finished fighting with.  This weighed on a lot of people, wondering if it was the right choice to go to war with the proverbial hand that feeds you.  So before I go off the road here, lets recap.  The secession from Great Britain was something the the 13 Colonies had to do but was fought on by anyone who would listen.  Over 230 years later, looking back at what happened in 1776, we see how how special our founding fathers were to the making of this great country of ours even though it took them a while to figure it out for themselves.

I guess to wrap up this rant of a blog post, I want to leave the reader with a few questions about greatness that might not necessarily have a clear cut answer:

• How is greatness measured?
• How long does one take to be labeled great?
• How many people have to be influenced to be great?
• Is there an imaginary mandatory time line that one has to pass through before being great?
• Are you great?