The Shake Man

You know it is way too early in the morning (what do you call it when you feel like it is the middle of the night and from too much coffee during the day, you rise and frustrated--you go to the computer to compose? But you're really in no shape to write well. Shit you're sleep deprived! Much better to write fresh, like after a full and wonderful deep dream filled night!!!). I'm terrible with words. Let me say it simply. It is 5:15 but I've been up since 3 and on the computer for well over half of that. Awful.

Oh well, I'm here and determined to tell you, courteous reader about The Shake Man.

Specifically here is the quote. And I'm not going to go to Google to get it exactly right, so please be lenient with your judgement. I'll screw it up a little but I think you'll get the general idea.

What he said (well duh, he said way more than I've ever read and probably way more than can ever be digested by all the Harvard Literature experts--face it the man was a Space Freak, an anomoly (is that the word?), a poet like no other. A marvel of word beauty. The Shake Man...

back to the story. What he said which is one of my favorite lines to return to again and again in those corridors of my mind is....drum role please.....

Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel!

My God I'm trembling right now and I teared up as those little pixels, those mega what the hell are they, you know what i'm talking about, the measurement of electronic data, that take the form of the "written word" but really are magical instant combinations of ones and zeros in the shape of alphabetic symbols. The point is, The Shake Man moves me but more importantly at this moment what I'm trying to say is...don't fuck around with friendship. It is precious and vital and those few people--because yes dear and courteous reader, your true friends will be few....but the ones who have stood the test...oh that reminds me, the first part of that speech who by the way The ShakeMeister attributed to a real schlock head...Laertes or Polonius, I always confuse them, one the father--the schlock meister, the other the son, and it was the father, the jerk face who got to give one of the most impactful and beautiful and wise short speeches of all humanity of all time in the space of about 13 lines or something...the first part of that is...yes, another drum role if you please....

"Don't dull thy palm with every new courage..." Ha! What a masterpiece. Is he telling us don't shake hands with people? No not at all, but he is masterfully teaching us that don't let the mere act of shaking hands qualify the person connected to the other hand put you in some stupid feeling that you've somehow committed to a true friendship.

You know, now that I think of it and read people's comments who we encounter here in blogoland, I have just now realized how many opportunities I've had to dull my palm! How many friends have I really collected here though? Hmmmm. According to my FaceBook page it is up to around 70 or 80. Of those on my page I wonder how many I should grapple to my soul with hoops of steel?

A few. And you are there baby. connected in a band of very determined metal!

Peace.