Eddie Bennet lived an honest life and you should too

Can you accept who and what you are?

 

And can you let others openly accept who and what you are?

 

I recently read an interesting story about Eddie Bennett.

 

Eddie Bennett was the bat boy for the famed 1927 New York Yankees.

 

Considered the greatest baseball team in history, their lineup featured the famous murderer's row highlighted by Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth batting in the number three in four positions.

 

These Yankees were also highly superstitious.

 

The players attributed much of their success to the good luck they experienced by rubbing the hunchback of Eddie Bennett every time they headed out toward home plate.

 

You read that right.

 

Eddie Bennett had experienced a terrible accident  as an infant in a baby carriage. It left him hunchbacked.

 

The  Bronx Bombers believed rubbing Bennett's hunchback led to higher batting averages and more home runs.

 

Nobody  considered that the players might be violating rules of political correctness.

 

Most interestingly, Eddie Bennett liked the idea of serving as a good luck charm.

 

Bennett was credited for the success of the Chicago White Sox and the Brooklyn Robbins who both won pennants with Bennett handing them the pine before each AB.

 

That's why Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert was determined to bring Bennett into the Yankee family.

 

Bennett's addition to the Yankees produced the greatest string of winning teams in the history of major league baseball.

 

It makes me wonder if all of us in our polite modern world are being just a bit dishonest.

 

We pretend not to notice the obvious flaws that we have to live with in  each other.

 

Maybe if we were open about each of our own physical drawbacks we could take away the power that they seem to have over us.

 

Wouldn't  it be nice if we could talk openly about each other's negative physical features.

 

We could get on with the business of living life without being self-conscious of our weight, or that mole on our face,  or even that hunchback.

 

When I was a kid there was a boy down the street with a  glandular problem that caused his body to grow to an enormous size.

 

He actually went by the nickname of "Tiny".

 

As a result, he wasn't self-conscious about his weight as it was out there for everyone to talk about instead of being the elephant in  the room everyone is trying to avoid.

 

There's a guy in Euclid who goes by the name of "Skinny"  who is anything but.

 

He's not self-conscious and no one is cruel for calling him by this name.

 

All  I'm trying to say in this column is that our obvious physical frailties can and should be openly discussed and acknowledged with each other so that we can get past them.

 

Why carry  around emotional baggage created by avoiding the obvious in conversation.

 

It worked for Eddie Bennett.

 

And it can work for us.

 

Think about it.

 

Next time you see me just call me Fatso.

 

I promise I won't get angry.

 

I'll appreciate the honesty.

 

Ready to live life like that?