According to National Today, keeper of the kooky kalendar keys for kakamamie kelebrations, Sorry Charlie Day is only tangentially connected to the famous animated StarKist Tuna spokesfish for which it is named. It is a day that "allows us to pause and reflect on the rejections we’ve faced throughout our lives."
Cathy Runyan-Svacina started National Sorry Charlie Day out of admiration for Charlie the Tuna’s remarkable attitude in the face of rejection. Having recently experienced rejection herself, Runyan-Svacina thought it would be good to spend a day acknowledging rejection and understanding how we can move on from it.
It's not the worst idea for a fake holiday. There have been a lot of successful people who have faced rejection and fought to overcome it. Tom Brady rode the bench in college and was a sixth-round draft pick for the NFL. Fred Astaire's first screen test was a notorious disaster. Nixon lost two major elections before winning the presidency. Okay, maybe Nixon's not the best example.
The point is that we, like Charlie the Tuna, should take heart when we face rejection. We can learn from our failures if we don't just mope and blame others. We can try better, try smarter next time. We can improve and overcome. It's what builds the steel in our souls. And one day, my friends, one day someone may say Yes, we want tuna that tastes good, and you ARE the tuna that tastes good!
So Charlie continues to try and -- let's face it -- continues to fail. Or does he? Normally an Atlantic Bluefin tuna fish in the wild can live no more than forty years; Charlie is still going strong at sixty. And you know, if Charlie had been accepted by StarKist, he would have been so much tuna salad a long time ago. We must ask ourselves: Does he really consider it a success to be eaten? Or does he just want to bring attention to the StarKist brand? If the latter, you win, Charles.
All this is starting to make me think about lunch; I wonder if we have a can of tuna in the pantry....
Umm... Sorry, Charlie.
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NB: Classic Crenshaw reference in blog post title.
Wasn't Charlie the Tuna was modeled after Phil Silvers?
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I was convinced he was just supposed to be a cartoon Sergeant Bilko.
Yep, he was a total Silvers ripoff -- uh, tribute. Voiced by the great Herschel Bernardi.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you want to be rejected if the alternative is you get made into a salad and eaten?
ReplyDeleterbj
You'd think so. But perhaps Charles the Tuna is simply so full of pride that he would ride that train right into a sandwich.
ReplyDelete