A Tragic Comedy

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*

 

 

 

Yes indeed, a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum (Sun City Anthem board meeting) last week when the subject of a new ENTERTAINMENT CLUB was to be voted on by the distinguished cast of the forum production...the board of directors.

 

For most people I know who do go to meetings, they often wish they hadn't...

 

...because they often witness children dressed like adults...acting like children !

 

One of those times was getting the news about an  ENTERTAINMENT CLUB, and all I could do was just sit back and smile, thinking my contribution to community leadership should include sending various members of that forum a two year supply of pabulum along with a large rattle in order that they are able to look the part in order to compliment their acting it. 

 

Oh...it got approved, but...it went through hell and hoops (by way of fruit loops) getting it approved !

 

Outside of going through session after session with a Lifestyle Committee trying to convince an entire group of people who literally define entertainment as...

 

...spending a Friday afternoon talking about stripes on a tennis court for an hour (only to have it sent to other committees for further input)....

 

...getting chastised for trying to provide FREE entertainment for a community...

 

...by a committee, only one of which has EVER attended any of the numerous FREE venues available to us old codgers in the Las Vegas valley...

 

...after having been responsible for providing FREE entertainment to assist a typhoon fund raising event....

 

Let's just say....

 

I went to bed that evening saying a prayer that started with...

 

 "Lord, thank you for not making me like the ones you subjected me to this afternoon".

 

....and asking Him if I could skip confession that week because I had done my penance to God by having to sit through that meeting.

 

"No", he said, "your sins require further resolve".

 

You must go through the ordeal again and again being judged by these same "jacks of all asses"... the same ones who say...

 

 "Do As I Say, Not As I Do."

 

Why I wondered?  What have I and the others done to deserve such punishment?

 

He then answered me in a peculiar manner I had once heard by a member of the current forum running for his office by saying...

 

 "that's the price you have to pay to enjoy PARADISE".

 

As many know, according to those who suffered through those meetings, that initial hurdle finally got crossed, yet two of the sub-forum still believed what was trying to be accomplished by the innocent parties...

 

...namely...trying to help a community "party"...

 

...at NO COST...

 

..was beyond their comprehension.

 

One was a committee chairman who has always been owned "lock, stock, and barrel" by the "system of good ole boys"; and the other was their apparent legal source....a "non-people" type person who believes any who look at life with a rosy attitude should be subject to suspicion. 

 

SO....on to the big forum...the BOARD OF DIRECTORS to determine that FATE of the "party animals".

 

In the crowded room of 25 people of the approximate population of 11,000 Sun City Anthem residents....

 

...they pondered...they discussed....they thought...

 

And then is was time for a vote...

 

WHOA...not just yet, said the former forum head honch who decided to enforce some rule that never existed...

 

 

"We need to place a restriction on these 'animals' who are attempting to convince others that life is more than a meeting on a Thursday or Friday afternoon".

 

We must MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT PERMITTED ANY GUESTS who are not members of their community clan to attend such "free" functions.

 

"After all, we demand all the peasants who are MEMBERS, to financially support a restaurant we the "chosen honchos", find necessary for nourishment,"  he claimed....

 

...while a fellow forum member, agreed in a loud voice, banging a glass on the table, after picking himself off the floor following his early "happy hour" visit to the Royal bistro....

 

 

... the bistro that OUTSIDERS are allowed unlimited access.

 

BUT...allow any OUTSIDE NON-MEMBERS to attend any "free" outing this proposed new organization was planning ?????

NEVER...unreasonable...despicable....unconscionable !

 

Let them play mini-golf instead !

 

Well, despite a noble effort of one member of the forum to say....

 

"Hey, you can't make a rule for these guys without having the same rule for others"....

 

IT ACTUALLY PASSED !

 

 

That's right....You read it right....

 

NO GUESTS !

 

So Uncle Joe from Kokomo can sit at the Royal Bistro without a member discount eating and entertaining your dates, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, concubines, etc....

 

While the "official" member animals party !

 

Who voted NOT TO ALLOW NON-MEMBERS to attend any of their functions (even though every other club in existence allows guests in some way or another  ?

 

Now this will surprise you, I'm sure (cough cough).

 

Other than the former main honch, Jimmy the "Legal Weasel", who came up with this absurd idea, there were  two outgoing forum members, Jerry the "Sleeping Gerbil", his pal, Dan the "Flim Flam Man"...and staunch anti-social ally, Mikey "the Mini-Mook".... 

 

... who  enjoy spending PUBLIC money for PRIVATE restaurants and $75,000 vestibules...believing that "the book" says, it's going to be the management company's responsibility to take the heat for all of the free wheel spending !

 

But how is a "NO GUEST POLICY" going to be policed?

 

It was determined that it was up to the "integrity" of the club do to so....

 

NOT SO FAST...their integrity has been questioned by both a committee and board,  but I have the solution to maintain that integrity....

 

HAVE THE ONES WHO DECIDED TO VOTE FOR THAT RULE STAND AT THE ENTRANCE TO EACH AND EVERY MEETING CHECKING MEMBERSHIP CARDS !

 

....after all, they've now decided that all of their responsibilities have been delegated elsewhere, so they should have the time to do so...

 

...AND....

 

...two of them won't be around to make more rules !

 

And doing so can accomplish yet another objective....

 

...making sure all of the community blogs not PROVIDE MISINFORMATION !

 

Oh yes...fun at the Forum on a Thursday afternoon....

 

 

...where life is determined as to HOW you should live it, by people who haven't the slightest idea...

 

 HOW TO LIVE !

 

* The characters in this piece are fictitious, and any resemblance to a person living, dead, living and appearing to be dead, or living and should be dead, is purely coincidental.