"... The boy few at Cranbrook School knew or remember was born in
Chicago, grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and had a hard time fitting in.
He liked to wander and "had a glorious sense of the absurd," according
to his sister Betsy. When the chance to get out of Indiana presented
itself, he jumped at it and enrolled at the prestigious Cranbrook. He
never uttered a word about Mitt Romney or the haircut incident to his
sisters. After Cranbrook asked him to leave, he finished high school,
attended the University of the Seven Seas for two semesters, then
graduated in 1970 from Vanderbilt, where he majored in English.
He
came out as gay to his family and close friends and led a vagabond
life, taking dressage lessons in England and touring with the Royal
Lipizzaner Stallion riders. After an extreme fit of temper in front of
his mother and sister at home in South Bend, he checked into the
Menninger Clinic psychiatric hospital in Topeka, Kansas. Later he
received his embalmer's license, worked as a chef aboard big freighetrs
and fishing trawlers, and cooked for civilian contractors during the war
in Bosnia and then, a decade later, in Iraq. His hair thinned as he
aged, an in the winter of 2004 he returned to Seattle, the closest thing
he had to a base. John Joseph Lauber died there of liver cancer that December.
He kept his hair blonde until he died, said his sister Chris. 'He never stopped bleaching it.' "
I
was reading the news on Reuters this morning (a hobby which I picked up
in the excessive spare time I had during my internship) and came across
an article on Mitt Romney. For those who don't know, Mitt Romney is a
presidential candidate who will be vying for the coveted seat of the
PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA with current President Barack
Obama.
In politics, it is not enough to just tell the
people good things about yourself. You need to also sling mud at your
opponents to ruin their image and reputation, together with their
chances of getting elected.
And that is exactly what the article on Mitt Romney's not so glamorous past is all about.
Mitt
Romney was enrolled in Cranbrook School (an elite school for the
elites) together with John Joseph Lauber when they were younger. John
bleached his hair and kept it long, which was in stark contrast with the
norm in school at that time where boys were expected to keep their hair
short and neat. While John's bleached and long hair did not constitute
as an offense under the school's disciplinary codes, Mitt decided that
it was unacceptable behavior and took matters into his own hands.
One
afternoon, Mitt led a group of his friends to confront John, pinned him
down on the floor and snipped the poor boy's hair, despite his crying
pleas to stop. They even went on to label John as a homosexual.
That
is the gist of the article. Basically, Mitt was an insensitive bully
when he was younger and thus, is not fit to be the leader of the most
powerful (for now) nation in the world.
While the
content of the article is interesting, it did not bothered me much
because its a typical political mud slinging example. What really
bothered me was the last paragraph of the article, which I quoted at the
beginning.
Reading through the short and presumably
unhappy life of John Joseph Lauber, I seem to be able to relate to him.
Like him, I was never a popular kid in school. I used to be bullied when
I was younger in secondary school too, not because of my long/bleached
hair but because of my nerdtard looks. I have to admit, I do look like a
retarded country bumpkin fresh out of a China village back then. But
still, it wasn't fair to pick on me because of that...
And
then, I am also somewhat of an absurd fellow, having interest in things
that are not that mainstream and doing things that can be considered to
be, well, absurd. I have been trying to fit in with others but have
never really succeeded. My failed attempts to join a CCA or other social
activities are two case in points.
Its like I am a
defective piece of jigsaw puzzle that doesn't fit into the completed
picture and because its just one of me, it doesn't matter if I fit in or
not. When people look at the completed jigsaw from afar, they wouldn't
notice that I am missing.
Even now, I still feel
detached from my environment, be it at my internship workplace or my
part-time job workplace despite repeated efforts at mingling with
others. People just don't take interest in me I guess.
Of
course, I am thankful for those friends who put up with my nonsense and
stuck with me till now. But even the Sun will die out eventually. So, I
don't know. Sometimes I dread thinking about the future.
Who
knows maybe John and I could be more similar than I imagined. Maybe
tomorrow, I will realize that I am a homosexual. Maybe I will end up
leading a vagabond life like him too, having no permanent place to
settle down. Maybe I will only get to know people very briefly and purely for formalities' sakes. Maybe I will have to do odd jobs just to get by with life.
Maybe I will break down with some psychological disorders. Maybe I will
die a lonely man.
While people like Mitt Romney move on to become presidential candidate.
Life. You ain't exactly the gift that you promised to be eh.
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