Elvis is Dead.....Now Evel is Too....

Friends:
Elvis is Dead...
Now Evel is Too...

Evel Knievel, that is...dead at 69. The Daredevil who disdained death succumbed to what? Broken bones, concussions, blood and guts? No, stupid conservative things like diabetes, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, hepatitis C…, things we die of, we who have never done anything so adrenaline-pumping as jumping 52 cars with a Harley Motorcycle at Caesar's Palace, soaring at 350 mph 2,000 feet over the Snake Canyon, landing in beds of rattlesnakes. Not us, we play it safe...live out our lives peacefully, unlike advice from Mark Twain: "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

Jack Kerouac once said, "...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn...". Evel was a self-described "gladiator in the new Rome," the possessor of the quintessential American trait of self-reinvention. He created a caricature larger than life that could be marketed worldwide to a generation hungry for virtual thrills. I think Jack might have called him mad!

It got me thinking about the value and the brevity of a "voice." Many voices make up the essence of America, not that Evel was as much a "voice" as an icon of idiotic stunts. Voices like Elvis, MLK, Gandhi, Kennedy, Sinatra, Pavarotti, Carson, Brando, Bogart, Gable, Di, Earhart, Churchill and many others… . Voices that made a real difference in things, in nations, in lives ~ voices that continue to speak today. But Evel’s life does point out by contrast the transformation of our culture from actual to virtual, where celebrity status and meritorious achievement stand in juxtaposition of one another.

Evel both succeeded and failed in many outrageous stunts and ended up with most of his bones broken at one time or another, being called virtually a "titanium body-parts" man. It's hard to figure out a man like this, and about all we can do is read his obit in awe of his courage, or idiocy. But one thing we cannot deny: Evel became a household word, for better or worse, in our generation and defined it in his own terms...and that, my friends, is huge -- - it takes real guts to look in the mirror and ask, “Who am I, really?”

We're looking for some loud, clear voices today that define what it means to be an American... What voices do we hear now? Are they voices of outrage, laments of inequity, of weak compromise, or are they bold voices of courage, of sacrifice, of innovation, of hope, or responsibility? Are we listening? What do we hear? What is our response? Elvis is dead and Evel too…..what about you?


Bud
December 6, 2007