14 Dec 08

Stoicism (by Two Tonys)

Two Tonys - A whacker of men and Mafia associate serving multiple life sentences for murders and violent crimes. Left bodies from Tucson to Alaska, but claims all his victims "had it coming."

What the fuck’s up with these dudes that go and climb Mount Everest? Let’s take a look at that.

Number one, they’ve got dollars – I mean big fuckin’ dollars. It takes more than chump change to climb Mount Everest. You’ve gotta take time off your hustle. Then you’ve gotta get your gear – that’s expensive. Then you’ve gotta get your airfare, your travel expenses – not cheap. Then you’ve gotta hire a guide, then Sherpas, then oxygen tanks, and tents.
The cost hasta be up there. In the over-one-hundred-grand range. But that probably ain’t shit to mosta those fools.

Here’s what I don’t get but I’m startin’ to focus in on. Me and you – let’s say – are a coupla silver spoons layin’ around and one of us says, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s go to the most inhospitable environment on the planet. A place where it’s below freezin’. Where nothin’ can grow. Where the wind’s blowin’ gale force. Where the slope is almost straight up. Where we can’t breathe without oxygen tanks on our backs. Where just the act of puttin’ one foot in front of the other is pain. Where we’ll sleep in a little tent and eat MRE’s cooked on butane burners. Where we’ll suffer for days, and pay one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand minimum to do so – but when we come back and belly up to the bar we can say we did it. No, it’s not Monte Carlo or Cancún or the South of France for us. We’re gonna suffer and have fun doin’ it. There it is in a nutshell.

Now I ask: where the fuck is the fun in that? Does that sound like fun to you? That wouldn’t be fun to me. Doesn’t that then mean that the fun is in their minds?
It’s like the great Bard said, “There is no happiness, no sadness.” They do not exist. It’s in their minds. Their minds tell them they’re on an adventure. A challenge. A struggle. That’s their reward.
And while they’re psyched up like that they’re free of those fuckin’ prisons called conditioned minds.

Now I ask you: can a person who’s just been diagnosed with cancer develop the same frame of mind? Or a person who’s just been given a life sentence or two? Or sent to the hole to suffer?
I think they can and some do. They know it’s pain comin’ but they feel a sense of reward by endurin’ the pain.

Now this train of thought opens up a whole buncha shit – from suicide bombers to organ donors. Criminals. Heroes. It’s a line of thought that sorta mystifies me.
Look at poor ol’ OJ Simpson. He’s so rich in material, yet so poor in brain thought. He’ll be out on parole in six years or even earlier if he kicks down some baksheesh to the right appeals court judge. How do you think he feels now on his little journey which is a slam dunk for guys like us?

I like to think I’m strong in mind. That I could take a dose of Abu Ghraib or the Guantánamo Bay prison – just to see wassup. But I don’t know about that waterboardin’ shit or hangin’ by the thumbs. To endure that you have to be committed real strong to what you’re in to.
But imagine what a trip to endure that adventure, that challenge, that sufferin’ – to climb that Mount Everest, and to come out and belly up to the bar. Now that would be strong and rewardin’ – for some people.

My point is: life is one of those things you can enjoy while you have it regardless of whether you’re strugglin’ to put one foot in front of the other in a snow storm on Mount Everest or layin’ on a bed with tubes in your nose in a hospital or layin’ on a cell floor in the hole readin’ a Time mag or even hangin’ from a waterboard in Abu Ghraib – you can be one bad motherfucker and that’s your reward. Doin’ it.

We’ve all got our own Mount Everests to climb. I guess some are just higher than others dependin’ on our states of mind.
Look at poor ol’ OJ. His mountain is just a little old hill to us. But not to him. To him it’s almost unclimbable. And therein lies the meat of the whole thing. It’s all in the mind of the beholder.

I say, “It ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.” Let’s do it. Let’s make the most of whatever the world throws our way – ’cause sooner or later we’re all gonna die.

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Shaun P. Attwood