The random thoughts of a genius...er...gene nash.
the warrior, tired of war, lowers his head to the enemy's sword
Published on August 5, 2004 By Gene Nash In Life Journals
unbowed (ùn-boud) adjective
1. Not bowed; unbent.
2. Not subdued; unyielding: "My head is bloody but unbowed" (W.E. Henley)

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
W. E. Henley

Poetmom has a thread asking about people's regrets. Here's my response:

"I wasn't going to answer this one because I have sooooooo many regrets, I didn't think it would be possible to pick one.

But then I was poking around the web (even though I really should be sleeping -- but I'm probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so who needs sleep, right? Funny, I thought I was doing better than this... Anyway, back to the story...) and as I sometimes do I started trying to find people I used to know which almost inevitably leads me to trying to find anything about my old high school. Well, since my last journey into self-obsessed Google-land my kinda-alma mater has put up a web site. This (looking at the site) combined with the dream I had last night about my long broken relationship with them, kind of pushed me nearer the abyss.

I regret that I was so arrogant when I was young, that I thought success was inevitable, that I always thought there would be time... and that I was so wrong on all counts."

If I wanted to start listing regrets I could fill your monitor with pages of them.

I've always considered myself the "bloody but unbowed" type, the "Ha-ha, life! you threw everything you had at me, but I'm still standing!" type. It's clear that I'm full of "it." Clearly I have cried aloud and become so practiced at wincing that no danger is even required. I'm not just bloody, I'm bowed.

At some point I clearly gave up. The last 12 or 13 years have been a kaleidoscopic blur of mistakes, misfortune, loss, and pain. My life lies around me like the remains of a hurricane splintered house. Only by being told do you know a house once stood here. No evidence presents itself to your eyes for you to independently reach that conclusion. All you can see is a shattered, haphazard lay of what once may have been something. Even a garbage dump would be ashamed to look like this.

Anything I envision now seems like just a pale adaptation of what I once dreamed, a mere struggle at survival, a token effort to say, "I'm not broken, I'm still in the game, really I am... really." I've been facing some very hard realities this year, and one of the hardest is that I am broken and empty and I don't know if I have anything left to give. It only takes one little crack for everything to drain out. The empty container is so easy to shatter.

I'm literally shocked at how closed down and shut off my life has become. I keep thinking over and over again, This wasn't how it was supposed to be. This has been a bad year, a really bad year. I've lost things I never should have lost, things you wouldn't believe if I told you, things that make me doubt whether I have any future whatsoever and make me question my entire past.

Virtually all my achievements take place before the age of 21. And what did they add up to? Nothing. Much ado about nothing. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Things are supposed to matter. Things are supposed to build.

So Near, So Far
I watched the dream die in my hand
I never dreamed every hope could disappear
Like the windswept sands

Gene Nash, from the song "So Near, So Far"

I miss my friends -- have I had any real friends since high school? I miss my life. I wonder if I have even had a life since high school. I tried. But I wonder... I really wonder.... It's easy to look back now and see what I should have done. If only... If only.... But what do I do now?

I guess this is a desperate cry for help. I just want someone to care. I just want someone to acknowledge me. But at this point, after so many years of fall and loss, I wonder if the acclaim of the entire world would be enough. The way I feel now, I doubt it.

You don't know me from Adam. I can't expect anybody to care. I don't really. But I figure crying out to the world this way is better than collapsing in a heap somewhere and wailing out to the heavens. Not much better. If things continue this way I still may end up in sobbing, slobbering ball somewhere.

I hope not. But all my past hopes have been dashed. Why should this be any different?


Comments
on Aug 05, 2004

I've been facing some very hard realities this year, and one of the hardest is that I am broken and empty and I don't know if I have anything left to give.

That very sentence tells me that you DO have more to give. 

We've both had rough years, haven't we, Gene?  The past 12 months have been the worst thus far for me.  Everything I have touched has fallen to pieces on me, leaving me wondering what kind of bad karma I must have created for myself that it's all catching up to me now.

And it's not just the last 12 months, either.  It's years.  Years worth of disappointment and strife.  Nothing has come easy....

But you know what?  I'm still here.  So are you.  I'm bloody, but yet I am unbow'd.  You are too.  Whether you believe it or not.

You have my email address (if you lost it, it's on my blog page) - please use it.

Oh, and 'Invictus', the poem you quoted...that's going to be my epitaph.

on Aug 06, 2004

hiya

for what its worth, one of the last things i remember thinking before i fell asleep thus morning (like yesterday) was how funny (in the entertaining sense of that word) you are and how little it would surprise me to learn you'd just sold a script or something similar.   i have only a very vague grasp of what's been happening to you (i looked back and saw youd been on the wrong end of real estate situation) but as long as youre still in the game, money flows around the table. (yeah i know it sounds like nonsense, but i paid a lot to learn how to play poker and dammit its true)

i also just noticed you've been posting some trusted circle stuff (which i hadnt seen before).  im gonna go check those out now.    

on Aug 07, 2004
Dharma:

You have my email address (if you lost it, it's on my blog page) - please use it.


I actually considered writing you before I wrote this, but I know what a difficult time you've been having and it didn't seem right to burden you with my junk.

King:

how funny (in the entertaining sense of that word) you are and how little it would surprise me to learn you'd just sold a script or something similar. 


Ah, people have been expecting great things of me for decades, and look where I ended up: On the back-side of the desert. Literally. I actually kept all of my scripts, intending to make them myself someday. Getting into that snit with AFTRA and deciding not to have any more dealings with the entertainment unions probably didn't help me any. That was before I established my "don't cut off your nose to spite you face" policy. In the past I have considered breaking into the vault and selling off some of my babies strictly as a fundraising measure. Haven't done it yet. As for funny being connected with scriptwriting, I'm funny almost exclusively on a private basis. I've created some comedy works in my head but never written them down. I can only think of a single one act play of mine that is comedy. I think I wrote that around 1990. These two college kids wake up in a frayed Vegas hotel room with hangovers, alcoholic amnesia, wedding rings, and a marriage certificate. The last thing they remember is being at a party in Palm Springs. Let the humour commence.

i have only a very vague grasp of what's been happening to you (i looked back and saw youd been on the wrong end of real estate situation)


Yeah, I tend to play it close to the vest. I have a policy of "Don't broadcast your weaknesses." So my blog wouldn't be too revelatory.

but as long as youre still in the game, money flows around the table.


Ahh, that's just it, though. Except for still being alive, I haven't been in the game -- any game -- for a very long time. I've been for all intents and purposes retired for more than a decade. All my little chickens are coming home to roost. 20 years of questionable decisions are beginning to catch up to me and weigh me down. I really do wish I could change absolutely everything.

I wrote a note the other day to the effect that "Life has a way of sharpening some people up and wearing others down." Well, right now I don't feel very sharp at all. (And no cracks about me being dull, either! )
on Aug 07, 2004
as long as youre still in the game,


Actually I have just come to realize that the game I most wanted to win -- a game I had< won but was too stupid to see it -- I have officially lost. Sometimes events happen that reinterpret your entire life against your will. Life has hit me in the face with a 2-by-4 and I don't know how to deal with it or where it leaves the rest of my life. I really don't.
on Aug 07, 2004

Dharma:

You have my email address (if you lost it, it's on my blog page) - please use it.


I actually considered writing you before I wrote this, but I know what a difficult time you've been having and it didn't seem right to burden you with my junk.


You wouldn't be burdening me.  Honestly.  And my difficult times are about at an end - Dave comes home in 5 days.  I might sound co dependent here, but listening to other people is good for me.  Takes me out of own misery for a little while.


So please....drop me a line.  Or I'll be forced to start bombarding you with emails until you respond. 

on Aug 08, 2004

Life has hit me in the face with a 2-by-4 and I don't know how to deal with it or where it leaves the rest of my life. I really don't

unlike most people (or unlike what most people advocate), getting back on the horse or bike or just getting back up after a fall or being slammed to the ground doesnt work for me.  ive done it and im not saying it doesnt work, only that it doesnt seem to work any better than the alternative which is to forget about dealing with anything but gravity til im upright again.  nobody ever really forgets how to ride or stand so theres really no rush.  i once spent a month screwing around with a story that never gelled only to have a momentary flash that turned into a much better work in less than 2 hours. stuff happens in its own time...and very likely so will the rest of your life.  like it or not dammit. 

on Aug 09, 2004
My dear boy, do not worry what is 'expected' of you whether others expect it or you expect it yourself! Life has a purpose for all, and from what I can tell from your most erudite writings, life will take you to very splendid places indeed.

Keep the Maxwellian spirit.