Novaxx the Joker

Affinity … that thing we feel with someone who has had similar experiences … except I didn’t, exactly … but I well could have, had I been put upon, as Novaxx had:

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/13/novak-djokovic-stuck-it-to-the-two-countries-who-locked-him-out/

I’m referring here to his determination to do it his way, not cheating, yet never, ever drawing the crowds like pretty boys Nadal and Federer.  (You detect some stick in there … you’d better believe it.)

“Why, Novak, why?” asked Amol Rajan in a BBC interview, struggling to comprehend how the man in front of him could place a decision to remain unvaccinated above a tilt at tennis immortality. For Djokovic, it was not an either/or equation. 

He was already an all-time great by the time it became fashionable to pillory him as a dastardly anti-vaxxer. He could afford to wait out the moral panic of the pandemic and see how the pieces fell. It was, to judge by the renewed clarity of purpose with which he has returned, a shrewd calculation.

For Djokovic derives strength from knowing that he has not given an inch to his detractors.

I understand the Joker very well, as my path has also seen obstacles strewn in the path, obstacles with not the slightest doubt created specifically so someone else would go through and in fact, I can put a date on mine … where I was passed over for officer training school and turned into a parade ground NCO … some readers will know what I mean. Fine, perhaps it suited my character, manner, better to be barking at some squaddy: “You ’orrible li’l man!”

But someone had then put a spanner in the works they’d had planned and I got the cursory nod, miracles do occur, no explanation for the higher-ups’ passing-over in the first place. If I told you my path since then, a grind all the way … well one day I was sent for evaluation and the lady and I had a long talk, after which she reported that I was perfectly normal. 

Sorry to say but (cough) she wasn’t (er) completely right on that … like groucho, I’d not join a club which accepted me … see, meeting those kind of experiences all the way where you’re the wrong side of the tracks, m’lad, with a manner which is far from gruntled, with this nasty habit of seeing bollox spoken and done and calling it out, maybe a bit too intense for most people … well I can feel great sympathy, empathy with Novaxx.

“I wouldn’t say that it was easy,” he smiled. “But people love comeback stories. They motivate me.”

Right, Novaxx, right, all power to you, sir, Mr. Unfashionable.

One supervisor in one workplace was struggling to find something positive to write in my appraisal and he said he admired my determination. Yeah right. But then I thought … that’s not a bad thing to be remembered for. And here’s my fave tennis player doing just that … inspirational.

Here’s something I’ve run a few times and here it is again … it was written about OoL by the way:

“How many people are actually still reading this post and for that matter, how many saw my name and immediately turned away?”  Superb levels of self awareness.  Just to add, I generally find your posts on here to be amongst my least favourite and amongst those I agree with least, however, that shouldn’t stop one reading them.

This post, however, was absolutely excellent and had I been amongst those who just ignore posts by those with whom I disagree I would be diminished by that wilful ignorance.  Keep it up James, like I said, even though I largely disagree, that in no way diminishes the value you get from writing or I get from reading your posts.  [Reader Steve W] 

It hurt me to see the treatment the Joker got at Wimbledon this year. I’m currently on a training course dominated by women, as so often happens and one lady was enthused by the final coming up … she hoped the “right” person would win, the one they could all get behind.

“Ah, the Joker,” said I. “A great player indeed.”

Utter silence at the other end. She changed the subject … we spoke about food but it was clear I’d committed the unpardonable sin.

So be it. If antivaxx is a sin, if supporting the unfashionable guy is a sin, if refusing to play the game their way, if calling them out is a sin, if holding a pariah position on certain topics is a sin … then I’m delighted to be a miserable sinner.

The Donald is too, in the eyes of the great and good … let the game proceed. 🍿🍿🍿