February 10: "The Sociologist," Multifaceted, Diamond

Billy Collins doesn't take himself too seriously . . . 

The Sociologist

by:  Billy Collins

I wandered lonely as a crowd.

Okay, if you are a poetry geek, like me, that is a funny poem.  (If you don't get it, check out William Wordsworth's famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.")  This poem is the kind that gets Collins in trouble with the poetry intelligentsia (AKA snobs).  It's light and fun and smart.  It's a dad joke in poetic form.  Don't get me wrong.  Collins is a serious poet, for sure.  He's served as U. S. Poet Laureate and New York State Poet in the past, and his collections frequently become bestsellers.  (Perhaps there's a little jealousy going on with the "starving" poets out there?)  Whatever the reason, in some poetic company, Billy Collins is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Perhaps that's the reason I like Billy Collins so much.  I don't care for people with inflated egos who have to look down on others to make themselves feel better.  (In 2016, we elected a President of the United States who excelled at this, and look where it got us.)  So, if you're reading this post and thinking, "Well, Collins sure isn't Kwame Dawes or Joy Harjo," that is true.  The world already has a Kwame Dawes and Joy Harjo.  We don't need another.  Just like we don't need another Ernest Hemingway or Pablo Picasso or Jesus Christ.

Simply dismissing Billy Collins because he doesn't mind poking fun at himself and others, making his readers laugh, is the height of hubris.  Humor is a part of who Collins is, just as, I'm sure, heartbreak and love are.  To ignore Collins for being who he is (funny and intelligent) would be like ignoring Martin Luther King, Jr., for talking about racial equality and God all the time.  Or Leonard Cohen for always writing complex, jaded, deeply melancholic songs.  Or me for writing blog posts and poems constantly.  

Every person is a diamond, multifaceted--dark AND bright, joyful AND grief-stricken, normal AND incredibly weird.  Only my closest friends and family members encounter more than one or two of my facets.  I've been absent from blogging for about two weeks now.  If you've been wondering why, I will give you my pat answer:  I've been too busy.  The truth is a little more complicated than that, involving sadness and disappointment and exhaustion and, yes, busyness, too.  But, in a society that thrives on 30-second TikTok videos, no one wants to spend time and effort to really learn the truth.

Last night, I played music for a friend's funeral--a lovely woman who, judging by how many people attended her funeral, was incredibly loved and cherished.  During the service, the pastor spoke of how everyone in attendance had different stories and memories of her--happy and sad memories, private and public memories, maybe even angry and disappointed memories.  Because that's what the human animal is--a messy conglomeration of experiences and emotions.  It's easy to love someone who's happy-go-lucky and fun.  But it's harder, and (I would argue) more rewarding, to embrace the broken soul and make it whole again.  Even though my friend is gone, she is still teaching important lessons to the people who knew her and loved her.

So, if you're reading this post and there's someone in your life who's upset or angered you, remember that you're probably focusing on just one facet of that person:  the facet that, for some reason, has caused heartbreak and estrangement.  If you want to throw a diamond away because of one scratched side, you will lose something precious and beautiful.

Saint Marty doesn't want to wander lonely as a cloud (or crowd) for the rest of his life.