The Flip Side

Ooo, look at cool guy over here

Have you ever heard of the expression ‘catch you on the flip side’? What is the ‘flip side’? Heaven or Hell? Tonight, or tomorrow? I think the flip side is more of a matter of bad versus good. Or maybe, even what’s considered cool. I think that when this expression was trending it was because of the popularity of the statement. That is how most slang starts. But, is what is consider cool always good? NO WAY! So, what’s a good a way to determine what is good and what is cool but possibly bad, you are probably wondering. Well, I am not sure let us look at the examples!

How cool were the Bee Gees?! Man, they just got a tribute special with performances by today’s artists such as Panic! At the Disco, Ed Sheeran and Demi Lovato! There was even a John Legend & Stevie Wonder duet covering all these Bee Gee hits. They were even inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame around the same time I was born in 1997. But, they were ridiculed for such a feat! So, my thoughts on it are, maybe they earned it? Yes, you can earn haters by trending, in today’s speak. But, what if it is so much deeper than that? Just take a look at one of their first hits, Lonely Days. Seems innocent enough as it’s chorus is “Lonely days, lonely nights. Where would I be without my woman?’” but, maybe that’s not as good as it comes off. Maybe the lonely days are the ones his wife is working? Then what would that make the entire song? An affair? I’m just saying, you never know for sure and that is how quickly the flip side can show you something bad that came off as good. Don't worry I hope they are 3 English angels also.  

Noah's ark could not of been this cute

Being bad or good, can simply boil straight down to your decisions. Don’t think so? Listen to the flip side of the beloved Noah from the tale of Noah’s ark. The original tale is that of a biblical fiction. Noah is this man who collects every animal, saving them by giving entry on his arc. This is because a flood is coming and he knows damn well every animal is about to be wiped out of existence. Well what if that man was not so good? That is exactly what Jonathan Goldstein looks at! This Noah in Goldstein's parody of “Noah and the Ark” is just this no-good guy. He is old man who has lived his rounds and seems to dish it out on everyone else. The biggest example of how he is, is when his wife says that he is being to cruel to them he replies only “… that he was just being honest.”(Pg47). He seems to be blind to his ignorance the entire story. So, who else to trust, but an ‘honest’ man with choosing who survives onto the next generation? That’s right this self-conceited Noah had the job of saving humanity.

He does the task rounding up the animals, but only the deserving ones. Once he is done with the work, he prayed and prayed he was correct about this flood. And what I mean by praying is, he said “I will watch those stupid dummies drown from the safety of the Lord’s ark and I will say ‘Ha. Look at you, you dumb stupids who heed not the Lord.’” (Pg 59) Which is pretty much saying that every living being outside his immediate family was stupid and should pay for it. And sadly, they do. Goldstein even describes the deaths of those not on the Ark in one swift kick to the moral “The first hands he heard banging at the outside walls felt like pushing into his temples. Then there were more hands. Pounding. Punching. Scratching. Then kicks and shrieking that even drowned out the sound of the rain.” (pg62) So was this an instance of humanity itself being saved, like the original tale? Or, one where lives were lost to a man who believed everyone, but himself, was stupid?

 So is there a line? No one knows for sure because it is never drawn straight. In the NFL you have football players like Greg Hardy, a very talented man who ruined his career with several instances of domestic abuse. But, though his career was ruined for what he did to other human beings, another player named Josh Gordon cannot even earn the reinstatement into the league that he is desperately trying to do. Gordon has struggled with failed drug tests due to marijuana and has several alcohol charges. Hardy’s guilty domestic abuse charge, as well as the one he got for cocaine, have still not haunted him as much as Gordon’s mistakes. It seems senseless and do not get me wrong it could be situational but that sure is one crooked line in place.

When walking this crooked line, keep in mind there’s two sides to every story, every situation. You will never fully understand another person’s motives. Whether they’re good…bad…it will not show. There is always going to be a flip side, so keep an out and your mind open. 

Jordan L. 936 words