The Man without Shoulders

 The Man without Shoulders is in the White House. That’s what I’m going to call him until he leaves.

The phrase is from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Little Boy. There’s a long riff about baseball — especially the joys of baseball. And there is this:

 

and the Man without Shoulders who can’t lift his weight in butterflies is now in charge of the world 

 

For baseball fans, the World Series is a kind of joy. But in Game 5 of the 2019 World Series, the Man without Shoulders was introduced, and the joy evaporated. People booed. The atmosphere got ugly.

I’m tired of hearing how divisive the Man without Shoulders is. That just doesn’t cover it. He’s the kind of guy who can ruin the atmosphere at a World Series game. He’s the kind of guy who can destroy the peace of worshipers in a cathedral.

For those who don’t share his values, the problem is what to do.

If we fly into a rage every time he desecrates a house of worship or violates a baseball game, we are just energizing his fans. They think it’s funny.

If we ignore him, we are missing the fact that some people are dangerously stupid. If the guy in front of you on the highway is drunk, it’s a bad idea to ignore that.

If we watch the Man without Shoulder’s every move, however, we are going to surrender the better part of our lives to something base. I want to be aware of the danger, but I don’t want it to take up all my attention.

Poisonous snakes are in the woods I love. I want to be aware of them, but I’m not staying out of the woods.

I’m also not going to stop enjoying baseball games or thinking about things that are far more useful and worthwhile than the Man without Shoulders.

I like Ferlinghetti’s phrase, perhaps because I use some other phrases about shoulders. Can you imagine standing shoulder to shoulder in a fight with a guy like that? Can you imagine building any kind of legacy on his shoulders?

• Source: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Little Boy; New York: Doubleday, 2019.

The blog A Building Roam has an article on "Baseball in the Works of the Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)" that started this line of thought. It's here:

https://www.abuildingroam.com/2021/04/baseball-in-works-of-poet-lawrence.html