A Carlin Home Companion

Mary encouraged my dad to look up words he didn’t know in the dictionary, and then use them in conversation

He’d always yearned to be part of something, contrary to his very public stance about groups: “People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a ‘common purpose’ ’cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they’re going to visit at 3:00 A.M. So I dislike and despise groups of people, but I love individuals. Every person you look at, you can see the universe in their eyes, if you’re really looking.”

I used the words of Joseph Campbell, who described it so eloquently. He talked about how the only way to begin to understand and know the wonder and mystery of life is to accept the monstrous nature of it, too. That there is the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the joy and the suffering, and that’s just the way it is. Nothing can change that. And if you think you can change it, you’ve missed the point. Life is fucked, and the only way to be in this world is to “participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.”

Was so in awe of his ability to humorously strip us of all our illusions.