Geniuses Get A Pass

Gleefully driving home on my early afternoon escape today diggin' on Bob Dylan.

"Standing In The Doorway".

"I'll eat when I'm hungry, drink when I'm dry, and live my life on the square, and even if the flesh falls off of my face, I know someone will be there to care."

You stand back and say goddamn the man is a genius. King of All Wordsmiths. How does he do it.

Truthfully he is. I worship the man for his words.

But..................................he gets away with a lot.

If I wrote that, if I said "Hey, look at what I just wrote - even if the flesh falls off of my face, I know someone will be there to care - you would say what the hell is that? What does it mean? Who could love a fleshless face? What does the reference even mean?"

Actually I know exactly what you would say. You would say what everybody tells me all the time.

"You are dark. Your writing is dark."

John Lester throws a pitch that is 6 inches off the plate and Hunter Wendelstedt calls it a strike. Frankie Yablonski throws a pitch that grabs six inches of the plate and Hunter Wendelstedt calls it a ball.

It's that professional courtesy thing. When you have earned respect in professional sports they bend the rules for you.

That mentality applies to other walks of life as well. Especially in the creative arena.

Trust me I am not criticizing Mr. Dylan. I don't give a damn where those words came from and I don't care to have the meaning explained to me.

They are perfect just the way they are and they bring a smile to my face every time.

It's just that if an unknown wrote them, he would get trashed.

Which actually brings me full circle back to Alexander Pope and his contempt for critics.

Opinions need to be objective to carry some weight. I think critics' opinions are rarely objective. I think they savage new creative frontiers and applaud established creative frontiers.

Job interviewers have no clue who they are hiring and probably ignore enormously talented people as often as they hire slugs and losers.

Talent scouts in professional sports probably miss out on as many amazing prospects as they go bust on the ones they support.

I could give you a million more Dylan lyrical references to make you smile or question or shake your head, but it would be pointless.

The man is a genius and his words carry weight.

I'm just trying to figure out the world and how I can carve out a piece of it for me to fit into.

Although I am starting to think perhaps it might serve me better to just go out and find me another world.

Ciao, baby.