Convention, but not a conference

 If I asked you how to spell the word for red and blue and green and yellow, etc. if you lived in the US you would spell it color. If you lived in the UK or Australia, you would spell it with a u, that is, colour. Which is right? Well, both, of course, not because I am a politician nor am I unwilling to call out wrong when I see it. It's just that there are factors which make color correct or colour correct, most notably national convention. 

What about prayer. If I asked you to say a prayer and you were a Catholic or Orthodox Jew, you might ask me which prayer I was soliciting. If you were a Pentecostal, I would have to ask you to pray (not say a prayer), and you would burst into spontaneous and convincing prayers. It's all about convention, that is, style you have learned and practiced in communal situations. 

To watch/ listen to this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmendo/55133552025/

I was raised to open doors for females, of any age, at any time. I don't always do that, but it's in my practice, it's convention. There is nothing written in the Australian constitution about this, but it's simply etiquette and conventional practice.

Today I flew from Australia to the USA and as is my custom, I wore a business suit. When I was 11 I took my first flight from Los Angeles to Kansas City, and did not wear a suit, but most of the men wore at least a sportcoat and many wore ties. That was convention of the day. I still maintain that in these days. 

I suppose we could use the term etiquette or common practice, even the word custom could define convention. 

Of course the Oxford English Dictionary says convention is, "a large meeting of professionals or political party members. It also refers to a widely accepted custom, behaviour, or method (social convention), or an official, formal agreement between countries or leaders. It signifies traditional, expected standards of behaviour."

I like that. Convention is normal; counterculture is abnormal. There is a time and place for breaking free of convention. Actually I was thinking about government and the people and when was it in the USA that mistrust and disregard took on a new normal rather than the convention of respect given (unearned, it just was given)

I'm sure there are ideas others have floated, but the 60s didn't start with the gyrating hips of Elvis or the Fab Four from Liverpool. For Americans, I think convention was tossed out the window in January 1961, when John F Kennedy, the youngest person elected to the presidency, did not wear his top hat in the inaugural parade.  (Picture above). He did wear it as he and the others moved from the White House to the ceremony of the inauguration. 

You see, wearing the top hat was the norm; it was the custom, the convention. When JFK tossed it aside metaphorically, he tossed away the moorings that kept the presidency what it was to have been, and what George Washington helped make it to be. 

After that momentous toss, it's no wonder that just 11 years later the shockwaves hit the world in Watergate scandal and the commensurate resignation of Spiro Agnew as Vice President and Richard Nixon as President.

Am I saying that Kennedy removing his hat was the same or even the beginning of the breakins at the Watergate Hotel and the downward spiraling lies of the leadership through the campaign of 1972? Am I saying that Bill Clinton, the most notable and visible child of the 1960s who became president later followed suit by removing his trousers while Kennedy only removed his hat? 

I guess what I'm comfortable saying is that convention is not bad, and sometimes traditions keep us, rather than we keep traditions. How different the world would be if we would and could trust our leaders today.  If what they said and did was honourable and kind. Maybe like in the Aussie classic, "The Castle" I am hearing the phrase, "tell him he's dreaming." (https://bit.ly/hesdreamin ) But another assassinated 1960s American politician and civil rights leader awakened the multitudes by saying, "I have a dream." 

Turn a new leaf; overturn convention, when it makes the world a better place, not when it ssimply suits your fancy or your own custom of disregard. 

The Untold Story

Intrigue is the word for wondering about things yet untold. It causes us to linger longer than we should, eavesdropping on private conversations at the next table in the food court. Intrigue makes us wonder what would happen if that man and that woman actually linked up and created a stir. The dictionary tells me it's about secrecy and conspiracy. It involves trickery and maneuvering and could even include tickling one's fancy. I heard from a friend that in the 12-step world of the sexaholics, the word "intrigue" has special meaning—defined as lusting, flirting or taking a sexual interest in someone. 

There is a certain intrigue when the cinema shows previews as well. We wonder about the drama, and fill in the blanks. I may know the general genre of a movie, but the order of things is not so set. I call this intrigue, and the movie producers have me guessing, whether it's Ruth Bader Ginsburg or the latest Toy Story movie. 

Last weekend my wife and I visited our local cinema and two of the previews included this line, Based on "The Untold Story" That's not news, of course, this photo from Chappaquiddick, the untold true story of Sen. Edward (Ted) Kennedy and his relationship with a woman who died in Massachusetts, and of course, the latest in the Hollywood-exposés of Gary Hart, played by Hugh Jackman, in the new release "The Front Runner." There's something intriguing about finding out the real story. We leave the theatre and admit, "I didn't know that!" But whether it is true or not is irrelevant; it's only based on the truth, and was until now not even told!

They could have said, "based on the true story" as is done in many movies, like Eastwood's "The Mule" "Vice (Cheney's story) or "The Green Book", but there's something intriguing about things untold, as yet. So we are being brought into a bit of unveiling and that brings commensurate glee.

Maybe you like stories as much as I do. And the unveiling of an untold story is massively fun for you, even causing you to guess like it's a whodunit feature. I remember both Chappaquiddick and the Gary Hart affairs, both knocking out potential presidents in their bid for the White House.  So I knew the stories. But many around Sydney don't know, and for them the intrigue is greater.

There's another story which is told, and retold, but many still have not heard, so for them it's as yet untold. It's the story of our Jewish messiah, born in Israel about 2,000 years ago. Some fancied him a prophet, some a celebrity or carnival show master. Larry Norman wrote a song about 1971 called "The Outlaw" and maybe some of these 'categories' will be what you would say about this character whose name is Yeshua.

Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians and few old fishermen
No one knew just where he came from or exactly what he'd done
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run

Some say he was a poet that he'd stand upon the hill
That his voice could calm an angry crowd and make the waves stand still
That he spoke in many parables that few could understand
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery
He could walk upon the water, he could make a blind man see
That he conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread
That he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree
And they feared his strength and power so they nailed him to a tree

Some say he was the Son of God, a man above all men
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin
And that's who I believe he is 'cause that's what I believe
And I think we should get ready 'cause it's time for us to leave

Let me ask you, is the story untold? Or is it that you just don't want to hear about Him?
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Click to listen to the Outlaw video 

The Movie "Stan and Ollie" is also based on formerly untold information.