Monday, May 27, 2013

Puppy Dog Tails and Guitars

Do you know what it's like to be the loser? It is seemingly a horrible job. A lame position that requires you to be the bane of your own existence. By simple human drive we are all looking and striving and working to be the Winner. I've accepted the fact that I am the loser. I am in no way athletic. I don't have anything that is terribly useful when it comes to competition. I'm the last man picked, and the first man out. the hardest part of this position is learning that you are far more important than you realize. You can't have Winners without Losers. So those people need you. It's a hard role to fill, and it sucks somedays. . . okay, it sucks most every day. You really want to be the winner in SOMEthing. Well suck it up and grab your pull-ups cause it's not getting any different. Learn to own your role. Learn to love and embrace this place in your life like you would being single. Be the best loser there is! Make sure that you are a "good sport" ( which basically means you Lose with dignity). Smile and laugh and enjoy the time spent participating. You could be one of those people who never even gets invited to try. It's not always a bad thing to be the last man picked, because you could be one of the people not picked at all. Remember that everything has it's place, and this is yours. By contrast I would hope that your friends who are Winners would pause for a moment to appreciate the difficulty in being you. That they would make an effort to include you in events that don't require a winning or losing role. That you could be socially accepted by the people who are beating you into an emotional hell. Sometimes the hardest thing for a Winner to do is remember that they had to step on someone to get there. They forget how many people's feelings were hurt, how many dreams were crushed, and most probably don't even know that you've never won at anything in your life. My advice to the Winners of the world, be aware of how many times someone else has lost. Not so you can remember how much better you are, but so that you can try and lift someone who has never had the chance to win. It's a lonely place at the top. Endearing yourself to someone who needs to feel like they're not losing at EVERYthing makes the journey less lonely. I personally believe it a responsibility of Winners to befriend, and defend the Losers in their life. I know not everyone feels that way. I'm not saying everyone deserves a prize. That's bull-crap. I'm saying, be kind. You won because of their less than stellar ability to defeat you. You're not above them. You needed them to suck that bad. Now be grateful and defend them from their own depression and anxiety. Make them believe there's a reason to get up every morning and keep losing. Because I can tell you from experience; some days, most days, you don't even know why you're still getting up if you're just going to lose again.