"The Glorious Excuse"

I read an article recently, which I didn’t keep because…

Everybody –

“I did not know I would be writing this…”

Correct.  You would think I’d have learned by now but I haven’t.  It’s just that, y’know… you read something and it’s fine.  Then you experience something which ties in perfectly with the first thing you wish you’d have saved but you didn’t and now it’s too late ‘cause it’s gone.

Which is exactly what happened here.

“Nobody cares about that.”

 I know, and it saddens me.

Anyway…

I read this column an English guy wrote in the paper where he describes the rewarding personal benefit of the mishandled “Brexit” settlement agreement, wherein the British government has voted three times against the Prime Minister’s negotiated deal for leaving the EU.  (European Union.)

Why has this national screw-up made the English columnist surprisingly happy?

By his own admission, the English columnist has always seen himself as being dithery, clueless, incompetent and ineffectual. 

Now the three-year “Brexit” debacle has delivered the truth.

“That’s just who we are.”

Not him, meaning not just him.  Turns out, his proximate “Peeps” are all dithery, clueless, incompetent and ineffectual.

Bringing a soothing satisfaction, because,

“I’m merely a cultural example.”

Philosophical syllogism:

“They’re ‘that’.”

“I’m ‘Them’.”

“I’m ‘that.’”

Yielding an exonerating “Yahoo!”

“For a person of ‘my kind’, I am exculpatorily normal.”

Ipso and facto  - because they hate traveling alone,

A comforting insight, derived watching Shtisel, a family drama concerning a rarefied version of the tribe to which I generically belong.

Here’s what I saw again and again, binge-viewing of this unique, remarkable series. 

(NOTE:  If this is a screaming exaggeration, blame the show.)

The women in Shtisel was unilaterally strong, decisive, determined and sensible.

The men, on the other hand,

Are less so.

Making the identifying me realize that, though I am arguably a “Less so”,

– not the side of the spectrum one would ideally want to be placed on –

The thing is,

I have company.

And you know what?

I’m not even the worst “Less so.”  Judging from Shtisel, I rank somewhere close to the middle of the pack.

Which may also be arguable. 

The indisputable “headline”, however, is, like the English columnist in the newspaper,

It’s not just me.

Glory to Gosh!

I am a “Less so.”

But I’m typical.

(In the world of “Fictional Dramatization.”  In actual life, I am on shakier terrain.)