Tuesday November 5th was not a good day for Rob Ford but he wasn’t the only one who grew red-faced that afternoon while admitting that he did in fact smoke crack. I did as well seeing how I was part of the large assembly of very passionate people (by God we meant well) who engaged in pubic forums (Facebook threads count), snickered at Thursday’s new issue of NOW Magazine (see: boycotted the publication) and spent considerable time and energy engaging in dialogue with friends, strangers, hell, anybody who’d listen, all while using phrases such as, “You don’t know the whole story… maybe there really is no tape…its all those leftists trying to get him”. Yeah that was me. My desire to not want to jump on the Rob Ford bandwagon was not so much a result of being naive but rather I live my life by the mantra that when is somebody is already down, there is no use in kicking them, even if they deserve it or better yet, even if they tripped by their own stupidity and boy did he ever.
I’m not sure who Rob Ford truly is and we probably will never know but I’m take a good guess and say that he is somebody who believed that with great responsibility will come great power and excellent health benefits and it did. I wonder if self fulfillment and peace of mind were two things he also wanted out of this job? Too bad for him that seldom do great monetary rewards also come with being happy. The first part he’ll get as mayor, the latter is a lifelong journey rooted in self reflection and restraint. And so begs another question- why are most politicians so screwed up? Hell, why are we all so screwed up? We have human beings who become mayors of the greatest countries cities in the world and yet are unfulfilled and looking outside both their marriages and what is legal to feel just a bit more alive. Or maybe we human beings are all guilty of self sabotaging our picture perfect lives because at the core we don’t want to be happy or lack the tools of how to stay happy. Maybe we truly do want our lives in chaos. Deep inside maybe he really did want to get caught. How else do you explain Ford’s neat trail of coke crumbs?
Rob Ford however is not alone as the cliche, rich kid turned politician, turned alcohol and drug fiend. There are countless stories of unhappy, dare I say miserable people who are in high profile positions making choices about your life and your future. I thought notoriety and good pay was supposed to make us happy and keep us fulfilled? Guess not. What about the average Joe or Jane who also reaches out for outside and illegal comforts? Why do we continue to live in a society where people can formulate a Facebook status on a whim but lack the how to express when they need emotional comfort and help? Who would we ask for help, anyways? With everyone’s 12 hour workdays (that’s something to marvel at nowadays) we have become the multitasking and highly busy society of bees, all working away but not really going anywhere. We as a society have stopped focusing on what is truly important and have gotten further and further away from the basics. We are overworked/stressed out and look at alcohol and drugs as an escape that only leads us deeper into the lives we do not want and further into becoming the people we never wanted to be.
This is all not to make you feel sorry for the big guy, though. We are responsible for our own self destruction, just as Ford is. We have become so obsessed with our sense of unhappiness and entitlement that we do not even see that our vices, those perks we use to balance out the mundane of everyday life, will add on to our demise. How do we combat becoming a sad statistic? For starters, how about going into careers that you are suited for. Rob Ford is no doubt pale in comparison to the Ivy league educated, diplomatic, suave politician we have seen year in and year out (think: Mitt Romney). So why is he in politics? Because most of us have grown up with the idea that high ranking positions and careers rooted in notoriety and great medical benefits will make us happy. As Ford and so many before him have shown, it wont. Rather, if you are not somebody whose foundation and merit is strong, the pressure will get the best of you. Besides, the man is happiest coaching high-school football not arguing about taxes.
Now that the dust has settled a bit we can ask ourselves: what’s the moral of this tragic story? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck? Besides that. How about the idea that we are living in an incredibly self-centered world where ego will reign over right and wrong any day of the week. How about the notion that lost and overweight little boys who don’t deal with their issues grow up to be lost, overweight, and now humiliated mayors of first class cities. Or better yet, lets discuss how much we as a society love to see people go down in crack smoking flames? Knowing what I know now, I’m still not sure whether I would have changed my stance in mid May. In a way I like that I gave another human being every benefit of the doubt, never mind that he let me down in the end. Even now, I still refuse to take my seat on the Rob Ford hate bandwagon because I know this is just a small story of a man who lost his way set within a bigger, demented picture that is only becoming uglier as time goes by and all the tiny fragmented pieces are dissected.
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