EMOTIONAL SCOREBOARD, TALLY OF ANSWERS TO BIG QUESTIONS

Emotional Scoreboard doesn’t explain who wins, who loses, or the odd tie. It says more about effort, determination, and sportsmanship.

As Robert DeNiro explained so eloquently in The Deer Hunter, “This is this. Not this, this.”

Emotional scoreboard defines the argument of who won what without any details of what the winner won. (51-49, right Alex?)

But how do you win? Or lose? When does it turn from one to the other? No numbers can’t answer that.

That’s why we need more than one scoreboard, and why we use facts and established history as the basis of opinion. That’s the starting line.

(If two people agree, then it qualifies as historical fact. Fight me.)

To the big questions today:

Why do seemingly smart people on television keep referring to German history from the 1930’s until the mid-40’s?

Is it the astounding economic recovery after the disastrous ’20’s and reparation payments for losing WWI?

Is it the scientific discoveries that advanced civilization?

Is it the meth?

The Nazi version of speed was called Pervitin and was available over the counter in Germany during the late 1930s before it was given to soldiers. Likewise, America’s version, known as Benzedrine, could be found in U.S. pharmacies before the country entered World War II. But the soldiers on both sides weren’t going rogue and taking drugs for the fun of it. The speed was issued to them by their own governments, sometimes in staggering quantities.

Or Is It The Fear

I think you know why that particular time line gets so much attention.

My research, based on The Sound Of Music and Cabaret, shows German authority given over to thick-headed rejects ready to do what they’re told to do.

Sound familiar? Like Jan. 6?

Take one of the men who stormed the capitol at the behest of Mr. Trump. I’m thinking of the guy who led the chase after Officer Goodman.

Put him in charge of a district and personnel and turn him loose. Which is what happened.

He chased, others followed. What he didn’t know, couldn’t have known, was that the uniformed man he chased, Officer Eugene Goodman, was also a former Screaming Eagle of the 101st Airborne Division.

If the men chasing Officer Goodman, bypassing the important doors, had caught up, what would have happened? Officer Goodman would have pounded the first guy and used him as a human shield against the others.

He would have sent them airborne.

Any promotion he gets should be directed to Officer Greatman.

After Jan. 6 too many pundits refer to German government in the 30’s and 40’s and how it swept the world into the worst events of world history.

People like Goodman, people who rack up huge numbers on the Emotional Scoreboard, are who draw the line between law / established fact people, and blind allegiance to whatever bullshit spews from the mouth of the the latest authoritarian fetish.

German references are a warning of bubbles below the surface of civilized behavior. Do we agree?

Effort, Determination, and Sportsmanship On The Emotional Scoreboard

How often have you started something, thought of quitting, but pushed through to the finish.

For the small things, accomplishment, at least the sense of accomplishment, is too minor to mention. So you don’t.

Yet, it’s the small things that make the difference. They are the details of art. It’s the final light in one of van Gogh’s Starry Nights, a final thought in a TC Boyle bio, the final scrape of plaster from a Rodin statue.

Maybe it’s timing, like the mili-seconds in the NFL, the time between seeing an opening down field and delivering the ball.

Little wins are still wins. You did the dishes after cooking dinner? No big deal until it slides for a day or two. That shit piles up fast.

Don’t have time to clean house? Wash clothes? Can’t see the point of being friendly, of putting your best foot forward? One after another the stack of problems grow and grow and gets tippier and tippier.

What happens with the tipsy tower of regret and remorse drops? Maybe you’ve been there; maybe its been you.

You don’t ignore it, pretend anything happened, or blame someone else.

You pick up the pieces, that’s what you do. Did you think there’s a magical remedy that includes not picking up the pieces? That’s rookie talk. Ask for help.

Pick up the pieces and tally them on your Emotional Scoreboard. That’s one way to win at life, instead of running amok.

Do you have another? Let’s hear about it in comments.