BETTER PERSON? BETTER THAN WHAT?

Does a better person replace a good one?

Or is ‘better’ the enemy of ‘good?’

Like most things, it depends on who you ask.

You get an answer either way, asking or not.

Did you know The Beatles were better than The Rolling Stones? They were, according to Paul McCartney, the cute one.

The bigger question is, “Do you care?”

Or did you already know?

As far as opinions go, everyone has them, but some are more accurate.

In a history search for a better idea, is America better than Russia? Let’s take a look at a couple of guys who put their feelings into action. They talked the talk, then walked the walk.

Steven Seagal is a better person as a Russian citizen, answering the question of, “Where do over the hill action stars retire to gorge themselves on attention?”

As a Russian citizen in 2016, Seagal joins another international man of action and former French heart throb Gerard Depardieu.

Since 2013, Depardieu has been loyal to Russia, which asks the question, “Which is the better idea, get fat and fade away in your native country, or go to Russia and be somebody new?”

What’s next, Arnold in Moscow? Sly? Would Dwayne Johnson make the move? Rocky, and The Rock, are American to the core, and Arnold already made his switch from Austria to LA.

Better Person For Body Shaming

Do you wish the best for people unhappily trapped in the gender they were born with? Does it change when they change?

Bruce Jenner was the best athlete in the world at one time. It was enough, until it wasn’t. He was unhappy. Now he’s happy as a woman.

If you are the best you can be, then you support Caitlyn like you would any woman. Of course Bruce could have lived his life out in misery, hidden his pain by eating and drinking himself to death. Or gone to Russia.

But he took things to a whole ‘nother level. And did it publicly. Go, Caitlyn, go.

A Better Parent than DeNiro?

Kids get the best advice. Usually it’s based on something that went wrong in their parents’ life.

What do you tell a kid to pump them up?

Telling them, “The world is going to hell, so why bother doing anything,” isn’t doing the job right.

Neither is blaming the other parent with, “If you don’t straighten up, you’ll turn out just like your mother/father.”

A kid today is working through stuff their parents never faced. Why make it more difficult? Don’t. Just keep up.

Find Better Targets

When you try and figure out what goes wrong, skip the generational blame.

Boomers call Millennials stupid; Millennials call Boomers stupid. Both are better than that. Or should be.

For one, blaming is too easy. It’s a cop out. Lazy. On the surface it’s one problem, but scratch around to find the roots.

All boomers don’t fit in the same closet, didn’t all go to Woodstock; all didn’t pick up their guitar and drop anchor at the crossroads of Haight and Ashbury.

But that’s what the broad brush of history and memory paints. Getting after your own generation is more satisfying, like Kurt Vonnegut did with Allen Ginsberg:

 “I like ‘Howl’ a lot. Who wouldn’t? It just doesn’t have much to do with me or what happened to my friends. For one thing, I believe that the best minds of my generation were probably musicians and physicists and mathematicians and biologists and archaeologists and chess masters and so on, and Ginsberg’s closest friends, if I’m not mistaken, were undergraduates in the English department of Columbia University. No offense intended, but it would never occur to me to look for the best minds in any generation in an undergraduate English department anywhere. I would certainly try the physics department or the music department first — and after that biochemistry. Everybody knows that the dumbest people in any American university are in the education department, and English after that.”

A Better Idea?

Whether it’s chicken, coronavirus, or quarantine, be a better person and do the right thing.

If doing the right thing is too difficult, read more posts on boomerpdx for guidance.