Friday 15 June 2012

What is a Diamond Geezer?


Away with negativity!  Find the good in people, I say.  Care not for the wind and rain which is set to make this English June the wettest and most horrid since One Million Years B.C.  (Damn, now I am thinking of Rachel Welch wandering around in a piece of furry fluff and making grunting noises).

What makes a geezer a diamond one?  Well, I have thought about this long and hard  (i.e. for at least 30 seconds - about the same amount of time I used to spend thinking about Rachel Welch long and hard) and have come to the conclusion that it is all to do with the acceptance of their own vulnerability.

Most people only let the mask drop when they are feeling particularly safe from attack - they 'come out of their shells' only when they think they are surrounded by friends or like-minded people.

What makes Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama so special is that despite a lifetime (or quite a few lifetimes in the Dalai Lama's case) spent in passively fighting the most hostile and dangerous regimes on earth, they like nothing more than to enjoy a good laugh with others, even if it is at their own expense.  Oh, and Desmond enjoys a good dance too.  There's nothing so revealing and endearing as unselfconscious dancing in public - I should know, I never do.

They are the exact opposite of people like Will Self, who spend most of their time throwing stones at people from behind a brick wall.

Last night, I suddenly found myself feeling a bit like Self (pun very much intended), attacking others from behind the Stephenson mask, so I thought I would post up a couple of heroes.

It sounds as though the village of Trelawnyd is packed full of unassuming heroes to me, but I - to my shame - find it difficult to think positively about any ordinary people in my locality that fall into the 'diamond geezer' bracket.  True, there are quite a few charity workers and the like around here, but they just don't seem to have the humour in them that saves them from being branded as do-gooders.  Here I go again... Stop.  Enough said.

I am going to spend the day (or a small part of it) trying to recall the flawed heroes I have encountered in my life.  That is the point, really.  There has to be flaws, otherwise they would not be human.  Does that ring any bells with you?


12 comments:

  1. I think it is easier to look at the tutus of this world and see heroes.
    They are, in fact everywhere, if we look for them close enough, even if you live in a small Welsh Village.
    Heroes to me , are people that go the extra mile when they dont have to...sure good humour and a winning personality are factors that always makes them a popular choice, but even morose people can be heroes when the need
    arises..
    do gooders are self serving
    heroes in general, are not
    for what its worth, that's what I think...

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    1. Yes, I suppose the above pair fall into the bracket of 'super-heroes', but they make useful role-models for the village versions.

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  2. I've been trying to think of others, but can't. Plenty of Zircon Geezers, bit I don't suppose they count!

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  3. I agree with John. An elderly man up the street from me qualifies for hero. Gentle, kind, and didn't laugh at me when i couldn't handle disposing of the chipmunk Phoebe left for me in the living room. He told me to call him any time the cats left gifts, then related how his mother was deathly afraid of mice. As boys, he and his brothers would hold them up to her by the tail to show her what they or the cats had caught.

    After another time where Jo had left me two mice in the barn right by the door, one dead and one not quite dead--and i couldn't bring myself to move the not quite dead one-- he kindly removed the small, soon to die mouse. I told him if ever i could help him in some way to please let me know. He smiled, said thanks, and several months later another neighbour told me my vermin removal neighbour served in WWII and was in Normandy on D-Day.

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    1. Yep, definitely a hero. The thing is, I started to talk about 'diamond geezers', and somehow everyone has got side-tracked onto heroes. I know it's my fault, but we are talking anti-wankers right now, and not 'heroes' in the classic sense.

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  4. I like John's interpretation of a Diamond Geezer. So, what's the female equivalent?

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    1. Whatever the female equivalent of a wanker is, I suppose.

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  5. I like flawed people so much more. My father was greatly flawed and that made him more interesting to me and in the end more loved. Thanks for your 49 winters comment. It was the best one...if we were having a contest.

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    1. I'm floored by by your comment, beautiful Olive. Hope you had a good birthday.

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  6. Oh, well, if it's anti-wankers you want then what about Enoch Powell?

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    1. He certainly split the nation down the middle. Everyone's excuse for him is that he needed an issue to bring him to the forefront, and he just chose the wrong one. I don't believe most of it, personally.

      Like I don't believe he was only quoting his constituents when he talked about 'picaninnies' in the arms of black immigrants, etc. etc.

      I do believe he wanted to appeal to what he thought was the lowest common denominator though. Like that sone of an immigrant, Michael Portillo, he suddenly found reason when he lost an election.

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  7. You're a diamond geezer yourself, Tom, except on your occasional non-diamond geezer day.

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