My Cubans?

I have been using the online handle "mycubans" for several years now.  In some ways it's like getting a tattoo when you're 18 - when you're 60, you're still dealing with a decision you made as a teenager.  The analogy quickly breaks down though since I could change my handle much more easily than a tattoo could be removed but there is some sentimentality there so doing away with "mycubans" is not as easy as it may seem.

The origin is simple to explain: there is an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer (my favorite character in my favorite all time television show) leaves a lit Cuban cigar in a friend's cabin that leads to a fire that burns down the cabin.  When Kramer returns to the cabin to find it ablaze, he begins to run toward the cabin in an attempt to rescue the remaining cigars and shouts, "My Cubans!"  A ridiculous scenario, to be sure, and funny because no sane person would react in such a way.

Add to that line by Kramer the fact that my dad was born in Havana, Cuba (making me half Cuban) and that I have been known to enjoy the occassional Cuban cigar and the handle "mycubans" made perfect sense.

When I first created the name there was little more to it than what's on the surface - a funny line in a funny show.  As I've gotten older (and, I'd like to think, more mature) it has come to mean more than just that.  One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in the book of Ecclesiastes.  Written by King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, the book is in its essence the summary of a grand experiment to find out if there is anything on earth (ie. under the sun) that can provide us with meaning, happiness, fulfillment, and joy.  Like the book of Proverbs that Solomon also wrote, Ecclesiastes has many one-line words of wisdom.  My favorite is found in Chapter 7, Verse 6 and reads:

Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools.  This too is meaningless. (New International Version)

The meaning is not immediately clear (at least not to me) but when broken down and read in its context the meaning is evident.  When thorns are on fire they make hissing and crackling sounds.  Likewise, a fool laughs when he is on fire.  The point being that nobody in their right mind laughs when on fire.  You frantically try to extinguish yourself and cry out for anyone within earshot to help you put out the flames.  The fire doesn't have to be a literal, physical fire for the advice to make sense. 

If you are being consumed by the flames of an addiction or of some secret sin, you would have to be a fool to laugh about it.  If you are trapped in despair or depression it would be unwise to try to get out of it on your own.  A wise man does not approach his dire situation lightheartedly but rather screams, "I am on fire!" and pleads for his fellow man to douse the flames that are suffocating him. 

The scene in Seinfeld reminds me of this.  Kramer doesn't give a moment's thought to the cabin that is being destroyed or whether there could be any people in harm's way.  He is only concerned with a few rolls of dried tobacco leaves and ignores the fire as tries to rescue his precious cigars.  Only a complete fool would react like that.  I pray that I am never so oblivious to the flames that life engulfs me with to laugh at or ignore them.