Blog: ​ABOUT Being

Richard Wilberg: Creativity Coach and Musician
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Music
  • Photography
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

You'll Never Know

6/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Scene One – BLACK SWAN – Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 2018
 
“I dropped him, Bobby,” Dave says snuffing out his Camel cigarette. “It was him or me. Every day in ‘Nam was like that. Never knowing. I can’t remember a day when I would relax. How could I?” Dave shifts his gaze from me to a distant tree outside the window. “He looked like a local, but he came on like a VC. I had to off him.”
“That’s a hell-of-a story, Davey.” I reach for the coffee pot, refill my cup, and gesture toward him. “More?”
 
“Thanks.” Dave pushes his white cup across the stained oak kitchen table. His faded USMC tattoo is barely visible on his sun-tanned forearm. Wisps of blonde highlight his gray hair. “Fifty years ago, and I still think of that day.”
 
“As you should,” my hand shakes as I finger my thinning hair back from my face. I remember Dave’s letters from ‘Nam. I was pushing pencils in college while he was pumping bullets. “Anyone would want to know if he did the right thing,” I say. “Did you ever learn if the guy was Viet Cong or civilian?”
 
Sweat beads on Dave’s forehead. He stokes another cig.  Smoke jets from his nose like a diesel engine. “Never found out. After he dropped, we started taking small arms fire on our right flank. I hit the dirt and shimmied on my belly off the road into a rice paddy. A Huey ‘copter came in, leveled the village, and we were out of there.”
 
I reach for Dave’s Camels, “May I? I haven’t had a butt in years.”
 
“Sure.”
 
I take a deep drag on the unfiltered cigarette, feeling the smoke burn my throat. Bits of tobacco stick to my tongue, like the unanswered questions in Dave’s story. “Davey, I know your memories are hard for you. Maybe I can help with another perspective?”
 
He leans his 190-pound body into the kitchen chair that creaks in response, “Go for it, buddy.”
 
“Ever hear of a Black Swan event?” I ask.
 
“Can’t say I have.”
 
“Black Swans can’t be seen or visualized,” I say. They’re black, therefore as a metaphor, invisible. Every so often a significant unseen event, called a Black Swan, will occur that changes a culture. We know these events will happen but we don’t know what they are, what they will be, or what changes will result. Black Swans can’t be predicted because they’re unknown. 9-11 was a Black Swan. In many ways Vietnam was a Black Swan for you.”
 
“How so, Bobby?”
 
I turn to Dave. “You’ll never know if you did the right thing in ‘Nam. One thing’s for certain. You probably wouldn’t be here if he had been Viet Cong and you hadn’t taken the shot. If he were civilian, on the other hand, you’ll never know that, either. Since you can’t change what you did, you live without knowing, accepting like a Black Swan, what can’t be known.”
 
Scene Two – CLUELESS – Melody Music Studio, Madison, Wisconsin, June 2020
 
“Hi, my name is Bobby Williams,” I say. “I’m opening today’s recital. Melody Music is committed to music education as well as your enjoyment. Music communicates beyond words. So, here’s a bit of music theory behind my new composition, Clueless.”
 
I play a D minor eleven on my Roland Juno, DS 88 keyboard. “I’m clueless about some of life’s most vexing questions. In my search for meaning I accept the possibility that some questions may never be answered. Maybe I’m cavalier, when I say, ‘So what? I’ll never know!’ I’m clueless.”
 
I adjust my music stand. “Music begins in C major. Bass chords are four-note arpeggios and rolled tenth progressions of C – G – octave up E – back to G. The final verse ends in an unresolved D minor, like the stripes on a zebra, with no beginning or end.”
 
I adjust my microphone, lean in, and sing.
 
“Reckless, restless, leaves me breathless.
Childhood girlfriends never would play.       
 
Careless, feckless, makes me mindless.
All my lovers get in my way.
 
Hopeless, sadness, keeps me aimless.           
Lone wolf hiding, running away.
 
Clueless, do less, feeling foolish.  
Everybody has a bad day.”
 
THE END

If this post is meaningful, please like or tweet below or leave a comment. Thank you for your interest and possible action you may take.
 
Richard Wilberg, MS, PLCC, ACC 
Creativity Coach for Personal Fulfillment and Career Success


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About the Author

    Picture
    Richard Wilberg writes fiction, creative non-fiction, self-development, and career counseling articles. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    Acceptance
    Aging
    Alternatives
    Anomie
    Appreciation
    Assertiveness
    Assumptions
    Avoidance
    Awareness
    Balance
    Baseball
    Behavior
    Being
    Betrayal
    Blame
    Brand
    Careerdevelopment
    Career Development
    Caregiving
    Certainty
    Change
    Choices
    Coexistence
    Commitments
    Communication
    Compacency
    Compassion
    Conflict
    Conversation
    Creativity
    Crowd Behavior
    Customer Experience
    Dating
    Decisiion
    Decision-making
    Desire
    Distraction
    Dreams
    Driverless Cars
    Driverless Trucks
    Emotion
    Empathy
    Escape
    Expectations
    Family
    Fatherhood
    Fear
    Fiction
    Flashfiction
    Flash Fiction
    Friendship
    Future
    Gerontology
    Goals
    Grieving
    Habits
    Harmony
    Healing
    Healthcare
    Humor
    Imagination
    Innocence
    Innovation
    Instinct
    Intentions
    Intuition
    Jobs
    Land
    Leadership
    Legacy
    Lies
    Listening
    Loneliness
    Loss
    Love
    Management
    Marketing
    Meaning
    Mentoring
    Music
    Mystery
    Nostalgia
    Opportunity
    Ownership
    Parents
    Passions
    Patience
    Perception
    Perfection
    Perseverance
    Personality
    Perspective
    Photography
    Positivity
    Presence
    Reason
    Redemption
    Relationships
    Reputation
    Resilience
    Respect
    Romance
    Secrets
    Selfawareness
    Self-care
    Selfconfidence
    Selfdevelopment
    Self Development
    Self-knowledge
    Self-worth
    Shame
    Song Lyrics
    Sons
    Stillbirths
    Success
    Technology
    Transformational Learning
    Transition
    Trust
    Truth
    Unknown
    Values
    Vision
    Well Being
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Home | Coaching | Music | Photography | About | Blog | Contact
© Wilberg, LLC. All rights reserved. Login.
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Music
  • Photography
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact