popeye the sailor man

After Ripley - ya gotta love Ripley - my fictional hero is Popeye.

Cause he knows who he is.

He says:   'I Yam what I Yam.'

See?   No pretensions.

~~~

To make my point in another way:

In the hilarious but meaningful and poignant comedy - The Birdcage - Armand (Robin Williams) tells his son - who wants him to pretend he is straight:

'Yes, I wear foundation.  Yes, I live with a man.  Yes, I'm a middle-age fag.

But I know who I am, Val.

It took me twenty years to get here.

And I'm not going to let some idiot senator destroy that.'

~~~

But out of his love for his son he gives it a shot anyway - and the result is amazingly funny - and
all's well that ends well.

~~~

Even Michael Jordan saw the importance of  what Shakespeare said in Hamlet:

To thine own self be true...

And I have MJ's quote taped front and center on my desk:


'Authenticity is about being true to who you are - even when
everyone else wants you to be someone else.'

~~~

Kermit the frog also expresses this sentiment:

'It's not easy being green
     having to spend each day the color of the leaves

When I think it could be nicer being  red, or yellow,
     or gold,
or something much more colorful like that


It's not easy being green

It seems you blend in with so many other
     ordinary things
and people tend to pass you over
     'cause you're not standing out   
like flashy sparkles in the water
     or stars in the sky

But green's the color of spring
     and green can be cool and friendly-like
and green can be big like a mountain
     or important like a river
or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
    it could make you wonder why
but why wonder why wonder

I am green and I'll do fine
    it's beautiful

and I think it's what I want to be'

~~~

If a muppet can grasp the concept of  how important
it is to just be what we are -

then maybe I can too.