ABOUT THE WADHEAD: Waddism

Waddism is the postulate that behind every person there is a lummox, a klutz,a nebbish who does stupid bonehead things, who forgets to tie his shoelace, who slyly hides away from himself vital administrative things which need to be dealt with (taxes, insurance etc.); who fights a constant battle to keep things afloat whilst appearing externally to be in control. Waddism is the open admission that the public , put-together persona is in fact an illusion, carefully crafted perhaps, but an illusion nonetheless, done for the benefit of society and also to keep a job.

Waddism is not the same as angst or insecurity, however. It is not an admission of weakness; it is the embracing of weakness. It is the ability to really appreciate the deep down incompetence of us all, the failures, the petty jealousy, the forgetfulness, the faux-pas, the inappropriate comments, the unplumbed depths of human's capacity to bore, the sheer nearly-but-not-quite nature of the human condition. In sum, the wadhead moves we are all capable of.

The first time I was dubbed (much as a knight is dubbed) a wadhead was by my roommates when I was in grad school.  I was in a house in Washington, a house I was admitted into in spite of myself, as they informed me afterwards , after an interview during which I sported a newly grown (giving myself more credit than was due) Fu Manchu moustache, done because the carpenters I was working with at the time both had one. To call it a Fu Manchu was actually above its station. My hair is (was) blondish, and the only part that was really visible were the two reddish side flaps going down either side, sort of like "two caterpillars crawling down either side of your mouth," as my friend Joel, later to become a lawyer put it. He said he had difficulty concentrating on what I was saying, thinking all the while "Why did he do that? He looks like an idiot."

But I got into the house anyway, a confirmation of one of the guiding features of Waddism, namely the ability to be GIVEN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. We could not, as humans, survive without this basic ability. On either side. I suppose it is a form of do unto others philosophy, but it is more the appreciation that Yes, that person is as big a screwup as I am, but I am ok with that. I also shaved off the Fu monstrosity the day after the interview. Unprompted, a casual admission that that particular peak was too steep to climb.

Waddism,and wadheads, can be endearing, if sometimes exasperating.

The investiture ceremony, if we can call it that....the moment that the Wadhead was enshrined, came at Joel's birthday, when his girlfriend at the time, Meryl Rose, penned the following limerick:

I can tell that it is no fluke
One thing about Joel makes me puke
It's bad that he studies
But worse that he's buddies
With Eric, the Wadhead from Duke.

And there it was. The birth of the Wadhead.

Waddism, the discovery that this was not, in fact, an isolated particular event, but indeed a universal event applicable to all, came later.

But it was a start.


To be continued.....