It happened early in the morning. At the gym. It was a fairly ordinary conversation, the kind you engage in while you work out.
I’m not even sure I remember what we were talking about. Sports, probably, knowing us. My son and me. Shooting the breeze while we got our work in before starting the business day. And I can’t recall what had come up, but I said – as I’ve been known to do – “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Tony smiled and shook his head.
“But what is, really?” he asked.
I knew just what he was getting at. For all the things you’ve called “the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” there can really only be one. Many things might have been given the label, but only one, by definition, can really fit. What a profound philosophical question to come from a near 18-year-old before 8 in the morning.
What, in fact, is . . . the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard.
I pondered the question. Something came instantly to my mind. It was the first thing I thought of. It seemed to fit so perfectly. Nothing else I had ever heard in my life was as stupid, as awful, as absurd as this thing. I was sure I had the answer. I began to open my lips to say it. But before I could, Tony spoke:
“‘Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?'”
Oh. My. God.
“I was just going to say that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I said it so loudly, they probably heard me over in the yoga studio. But a moment like this is special.
My son and I do not spend time discussing politics. Neither of us likes the subject. We talk about many things, but not that. And yet, when pondering the question of the stupidest thing either of us had ever heard, one and only one thing – instantly – came to both our minds. And here it is....
Having watched it again for the first time in two years, it actually seems less remarkable that Tony and I had this simultaneous revelation this morning. What else could possibly come to your mind when presented with the question, “What is the actual stupidest thing you’ve ever heard?”
There can be no other answer possible.
