“The ones that don’t fit in…”

This afternoon as I drove to a photo assignment, I had my stereo turned up with a Third Eye Blind CD in it. The song “Misfits” played and I remembered that tonight Abby and I were having Wil and Marline Fry down from Seminole for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Papa Gjorgio’s.

Wil Fry with His Camera
Wil Fry with His Camera

They are moving to Texas this week, and we wanted one last chance to hang out with them before they left. They came down, and we all enjoyed sparkling conversation and an excellent meal on this wonderfully soft, warm August evening.

The reason that song reminded me that they were coming is that Wil and I think alike a lot of the time. I know that he was as big a misfit as I was growing up, and I know from conversations with him that we share a lot of key paradigms. Example: our minds are always racing with thoughts, even when we are trying to sleep (maybe especially when we try to sleep.)

I told him to download “Misfits” and listen to it like it was something of a theme for people like us.

Those are the ones for me
Those are the ones for me
The misfits, the freaks, the enemy, you and me
Those are the ones for me
Those are the ones for me
The misfits, the freaks, the enemy, you and me

Sidebar: I detest it when people who were popular and good-looking in high school later claim that they were awkward, shy or insecure. It’s a crock. Their arrogance kept a lot of people like Wil and me down, and they knew it at the time. Their latter-day claims of nurdishness are made to look like an apology of ignorance, but are really just another way to rub our noses in it. I tried to be friends with a couple of them over the years, and I know the truth, that they are still just as full of themselves as ever.

1 Comment

  1. There’s a Leonard Cohen song called, “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,” that goes, “And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself. You said, ‘Well, nevermind. We are ugly but we have the music.'”

    These days, I’m a bit bigger than I was in high school but I’m still the same nerd from way back then.

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