THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 114 - "BIG SUCCESS, BIG MESS."

We just finished watching the Vince McMahon documentary on NetFlix & I just finished reading “Bon Scott: Have a Drink On Me” book by Irene Thornton. I had this profound moment when she wrote that Bon was going to be a Rock&Roll singer regardless of whether it was unhealthy for him or not. This killed him, with McMahon he is supposed to be a vehicle for professional wrestling. The world & life throw numerous obstacles in your way, life would be boring & too easy if this wasn’t the case. Sometimes these are the direct consequences of successfully bringing your calling into the world. Fame, power & money are all things that are products of success but they all have considerable downsides. If you live the unexamined life, these success bi-products can run rampant, ruin your life, make it impossible to be the vehicle for the thing. In the case of Bon it killed him, in the case of McMahon he left a trail of carnage in his wake & he himself was seen as a liability (he’s 79 so he should probably have let go of power a while back). It’s funny, I definitely needed an ego to assert that I was going to be an artist when I was 8, but that same ego has been a problem for me my entire life. Even after experiencing ego death with the stroke & having a considerably more manageable ego, it’s still a challenge. People like it when these people are really feeling it, it’s life affirming. Especially in America, you start to glow & people feel it. It’s one of the reasons Trump & this idea of “Winning” swept over so many people. These feelings are great. However, there is a downside, the downside is increased by the size of the success. As Ed “Big Daddy” Roth said, “Big Mess, Big Success!” All you have to do is reverse the order & you’ve got, “Big Success, Big Mess!” It’s one of the key reasons that America’s troubles shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The troubles of the baby boomers should be to no surprise either as they are clinging to power increasingly as they approach the grave.