loztriforce
31343
766
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Jul 15, 2025 1:48 AM
loztriforce
31343
766
13
doctorId
Essentially what my formative years looked like
SuperfluousMeh
I loved Shel Silverstein as a kid. Still do.
FoxySpirit
People don't to try understand motivation. They don't wanna try human suffering. They just wanna point fingers.
There is no willingness to understand "the other side", because they are horrible people. And maybe they are. But why? You don't care. You find that horrible person and dehumanize them.
Do not let your understanding of motivations be skin deep. "They just love money. They just love power. They don't acre about people." But why? We won't end this until we all really understand.
PutItInNeutral
How very sad.
cepacolusmaximus
oh look, middle school
FairfaxJack
Random Factoid: Shel Silverstein lived in a house boat on a dock at Gate 5 Rd in Sausalito CA.
This is the very same “dock on the bay” that Otis Redding wrote the song about
Although they may have been there at the same time (1967) there’s no indication that they met. (Shel lived there full time whereas Otis stay in a houseboat owned by Bill Graham for 6 days while playing in San Francisco)
The name “Gate 5 Rd” is a holdover from when the area was home to a Liberty Ship shipyard during WWll
FairfaxJack
Other one-time residents include actors Sterling Hayden (The Godfather), Rip Torn (Men in Black) and Geraldine Page.
Also, Anne Lamott, Bill Cosby (!) and environmentalist Paul Hawken (of Smith and Hawken)
MioTaalas
That's how it always happens...
STOP LISTENING TO THE BIGOTS!
GenericValue
He's clearly happier that way though. Even before being mocked he was clearly miserable. Changing yourself to fit in with a community isn't always a bad thing; as long as it's your own choice.
MioTaalas
Weird take... That smile might be genuine, you're now part of the in group after all, but at what cost? Everything that made you YOU and unique.
Is that something to strive towards?
I'd wager it's better that the in group includes ALL and doesn't discriminate and values everyone as they are....
GenericValue
Who knows. It's definitely up for interpretation. I don't think he's happy because he's conformed. I think he's happy because he's let go of the tender thoughts that were weighing him down. That's how I interpret it at least.
GenericValue
I think the meaning is lost on some people. He's visibly miserable even before being mocked. Maybe overwhelmed by all the 'tender thoughts' and concerns for all the problems in the world he can't fix or do anything about. But after clearing his head, and keeping a single flower on his lapel so he doesn't give up all his tenderness, he's happier.
NicoretteJunkie
I've been looking for a poem that I think is Shel.... Something about wearing a mask, and behind the mask is a "more genuine me" or something like that. I have no idea. help!
TheManWhoStaresAtTurtles
NicoretteJunkie
I like it! But it's not the one I'm looking for.... Thank you for trying, though!
NicoretteJunkie
I found it! In just some random meme dump, lol.
ErniesWidow
Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" made me sad, too.
Chynoo11
i loved it as a kid and have never been able to read it without crying.
bobimg
Perhaps an alternative interpretation to ones I more often see: It appears their empathy is weighing them down. Long before people are laughing at him he looks haggard. He cuts away these concerns and becomes a happier man even while keeping the most pressing issue in his lapel.
This doesnt excuse the mockery, but I see it as a warning against a self destructive 'tenderness'. (E.g. becoming hopeless on another persons behalf, its a perversion of empathy, helps nobody, and becomes almost selfish)
SuperfluousMeh
I think the message is much more open. I saw it in a similar way as you. Sometimes we have big ideas and they don't work and we need Society to tell us that. Mockery is a form of social correction that helps keep the group together, and even though it isn't Pleasant to be on the receiving end of it, sometimes it can be for the greater good.
EternalStudent07
Took only a few days to get an a-hole for me. People should be punished (ostracized) but nobody else seems to care. Or they cheer 'em on. "Don't be so sensitive." F the world.
VincitQuiSeVincit
it took a few days? was your asshole on layaway? My asshole was built-in.
StewedTomaters
I was an anus before anything else. Embryologically speaking.
DVSBSTrD
Oddly enough, he seems happier without the flowers than he did with them.
Drylegs
Thats what made me stop and think and look more.
doobiedoobop
It's exhausting bursting into tears every time you see a cute dog.
Spotafire
Never had to mask a smile?
Wutsabi
Ignoring is bliss, pretty much explain it
EmporerDragon
He also didn't completely throw them away, he kept one for his lapel.
VincitQuiSeVincit
that's cuz he smoked them.
GhostOfAnrui
KERCHOO
ParryLost
It's very hard to be happy while getting ostracized by others, though, so that doesn't prove much. And thinking differently from others can→
ParryLost
→be valuable / meaningful even if it doesn't make you "happy" per se.
olipro85
The facial expressions totally ruin the message.
Drylegs
What’s the message?
HeraldofOmega
Conform. Obey.
GenericValue
Given the title calls them 'Tender Thoughts' it could definitely be a double-meaning, where the person is weighed down by concerns for others and what they think of him, and only by getting rid of the tenderness is he able to feel better. Could be real heckin' tragic, as if to say that the world and its people are too messed up to be happy if you have any tenderness.
SuperfluousMeh
I think they give you the flexibility to interpret the message more openly. What if those flowers were the fruits of bad thoughts? Not all criticism is bad. Sometimes we have big thoughts that need to be tempered by Society. But then sometimes Society squishes our flowers because they don't like our spirit.
olipro85
That makes sence. I didn't think about it.
BackfeeElli
+1 for over-thinking your mind when you were shown a different point of view. Good work my dude