Linguists and those who have mastered multiple languages all agree that English is the most difficult to learn. I’m not sure if that simply occurred or was by purposeful design. The problem is, many words in the English language have two meanings.
Take the word “hustle.” It can mean “to take advantage of someone, to cheat them out of something” as in “I was hustled for a dollar by a person claiming to be homeless.” Or it can mean to work real hard at something: Pete Rose’s nickname was “Charley Hustle” because he gave 110 percent all the time.
So I’ve been known as both kinds of hustlers: If you were Merrill Lynch or some other credit card-issuing institution, I was on you like a cheap suit, trying to fleece you for money via a scam. On the other hand, I’ve always had a tremendous work ethic that I inherited from my father: I’m always going to “make a way out of no way.” Quitting isn’t in my vocabulary.
Perhaps that’s why I’m starting to get my annual calls. They start coming in around mid-January from old friends I haven’t seen or heard from since, well, last January. They all are interested in launching some hare-brained scheme to either make tons of money or save the world — and they want my help or advice since, well, I’m a hustler, but one who hasn’t broken the law since 1991.
But they know I get things done, I don’t just sit around and talk about getting things done. Some of these folks have money, some don’t. But what they all lack — besides a once-a-year desire — is the will to get off their asses and actually do something.
I humor these folks — after all, most of them are friends of longstanding, and in their heart of hearts, I think they all mean well. But like the old saying goes, “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but don’t nobody want to die.”
I get it: These friends all want to add meaning to their lives. They might be employed in a dead-end, meaningless job, or they might be retired, or simply sitting at home like many trust fund babies do, but something in the back of their minds is telling them that if they want to find the fountain of youth, if they want to extend their years on the planet, they have to be of some use to man and womankind.
Certainly the Grim Reaper is coming for me just like he’s coming for everyone else. The thing is, I’m not going out like a sucker, I ain’t going out without a fight.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” — Dylan Thomas
You know what I want people to say about me a hundred years from now? “Gee, he sure looks good for his age.” Staying busy is staying alive. And staying alive means staying “up for the down stroke.” If you don’t get it, Google George Clinton, he lays it all out plain and simple.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com