Am I the Bill Hicks of Librarianship...?

I swear sometimes it feels like I'm the f*cking Bill Hicks of Librarianship. Or Sam Kinison.

I can easily imagine this scene in other LIS people's head:

AggieLibrarian (as played by Sam Kinison): "...@#)*$@!$$@!!!!"

Casual mainstream LIS observer or Average Library patron (as played by Rodney Dangerfield): " He really seems to care!! (whispering) ...about what I have NO idea...."

Sam K. died too young, but I do think he was at peace when he went. He regretted his earlier homophobia and apologized. I had it to, until someone close to me came out of their closet and changed my life for the better, forever, giving me the courage to cast off old hatreds and prejudices through the power of love I had for a friend whom I loved like a brother, and without whom I probably wouldn't be here right now.

Like Bill Hicks, though, I rant, scream, try to get people to laugh AND think at the same time, and probably end up just pissing half the people off.

I bring Bill up for a number of reasons; One, although like me, he wasn't born in this city of Houston, he was profoundly shaped by his living here. He got his start here. He's one of us, always and forever.

Two, like Bill Hicks, I too have been approached by someone and asked "What are you readin' for?"; Not "what are you reading?", which is a reasonable question, but "What are you readin' for?" (actually, I was specifically asked in fewer words..."why are you reading?"). My reaction was much like Bill's. Bill relates that he was asked this question by a pancake house waitress, who added "you can just flip on the 'tube..."; Bill looked back with disdain and disgust and said "It's not the same". "Part of why I read is...so I don't end up a waitress in a Pancake House."; My response, just about as cruel, "...because this book is probably more interesting to me than you are."; Of course, I used to read in bars, which is admittedly a little bit eccentric. I try to stick to venues where caffeine & nicotine are the drugs of choice offered instead. Things tend to go smoother for us readers there. "Looks like we got ourselves a READER", said a burly Trucker to Bill Hicks, in the same aforementioned Pancake House. Nobody ever said that to me, admittedly, and it's a good thing, too, because that's about the creepiest declaration I can imagine ever hearing about myself. My ears would definitely be pricking up listening for the dueling banjos at that point.

Three, because I've been watching a lot of the best of Bill Hicks lovingly archived on YouTube lately, and it's been a true Zen bliss experience, in the midst of laughing my ass off, and of just plain feeling the rage, along with Bill, at his angriest moments. He died so young. But you can't say he didn't live life to the fullest, when he did speak, he spoke/lectured...no SCREAMED FROM HIS HEAARRRRTTT!!!

That's your barbaric yawlp right there, my fellow Dead Poets' Society members; He was a man of passion who died young. As the Billy Joel song says, only the Good Die Young. But even if you do make it to a ripe old age, despair not--for if you remain young in your HEART, you too, shall die YOUNG. Only the GOOD die young, regardless of physical age. You dig?

Peace, bro.