Dear Poor Lucky Me,
You’ll never believe this (unless you already know) but Shel Silverstein wrote the song “A Boy Named Sue“.
Are you blown away? I was. I found out listening to NPR tonight and I feel like an idiot that I had no idea. I mean I was a hippie in college!
This is sort of distressing to tell you the truth, because I’ve always prided myself as a worthy musical snob. How could this knowledge have slipped by me?
Am I right to feel to ashamed of myself?
Signed,
A Boy Named Idiot
Dear Idiot,
I am officially blown away. I am similarly disturbed that Shel Silverstein’s catalog of achievements has escaped my attention until now.
However, because I am working diligently with a therapist to create an internal dialogue more consistent with my external achievements- I refuse to call myself an idiot for this lack of knowledge.
Instead I spent an evening looking of Silverstein’s impressive artistic forays and appreciated what a renaissance man he was. I was even inspired to pick up an art project I had abandoned a few weeks ago.
Surely a profound feeling of inspiration trumps any initial embarrassment you or I should have because of our ignorance. We learned about Silverstein when we were kids, now we can learn about another side of him as adults. And it’s a really funny, creative, impressive side. I’m so glad you wrote in.
As usual I started my research with Wikipedia. I know people poo-poo Wikipedia because it can be user-edited…but don’t only smart nerds bother to do that? Oh and evil corporations I guess. But I never look stuff up like “Coca-Cola” or “Haliburton”.
I did get lost on a funny trail though where I learned the following important facts:
-Silverstein composed most of the soundtrack for the 1970 movie “Ned Kelly” starring Mick Jagger. The film was about a famous Australian bushranger who was eventually hanged for murder.
-The Kakapo is a flightless parrot from New Zealand. They can live up to 60 years and only breed every four years depending on their food source.
-Some experts argue that Easter Island was not solely settled by Polynesians, for reports of residents with red hair and sun burnt skin were written by early European explorers.
-Tamed rats are friendly and can be taught many tricks when kept as pets.
Wow. What an amazing journey of intellectual curiosity. I can now watch at least 15 hours of guilt-free reality TV. I love the Internet ever so much.
Sincerely,
Poor Lucky Me
