# 353 / High Points And Low Points

 

My blog postings and I have been getting ready to go around the bend, and to head into the open field of a brand new year. As I have been getting ever closer to that December 31st "Grand Finale," it struck me that it might be a good idea to try to document the "High Points" and the "Low Points" of 2023, as personally experienced by and reported upon by Gary A. Patton. 

Taking that "High Points/Low Points" subject as the "prompt," to use an academic term which is generally taken to mean the instructions given to a student who must produce a written assignment in return for a grade, I immediately began to have qualms. 

Right now, for instance, if I really want to be honest, I am experiencing a kind of "low point." Do I really want to get into all of that? The year began with a kind of "low point," too. That "syncope" I suffered on January 3rd, which did introduce me to a new word - "syncope," and that's a plus - has actually continued to dog me down, or so I'd put it, throughout the whole damn calendar. Do I really want to try to explain just how bad that dog has been, how bad that year became?

I don't. 

The more I thought about that "High Points/Low Points" prompt, the more I came to the realization, helped along by Johnny Mercer, that outlining the "Low Points" of my year is not really an assignment I want to undertake. It's not an assignment I think I should undertake. Considering how to be helpful, I have come to the realization that we learn our lessons on the upside.

I am betting that most of the students I have been teaching up at UCSC don't know anything at all about Johnny Mercer, and that's also likely to be true of a lot of other people who might read this blog posting. Mercer, in fact, is more associated with my parents' era than with my own, which considering my own age puts him way back in the rearview mirror. Mercer was an American songwriter, and a singer, as well as being a co-founder of Capitol Records, and it may well be that the words to one of his most famous songs is really coming to me not so much from Mercer, but from my Dad. 

My Dad reliably provided me with lots of good advice as I was growing up, and one piece of advice was right out of Johnny Mercer's music. My Dad would actually sing me Mercer's song, or at least this part: 

Accentuate the Positive

Eliminate The Negative

Don't Mess With Mister In-Between

If you want to hear Johnny Mercer sing it himself (and if you want to read a full complement of the lyrics), direct your attention to the bottom of this blog posting. For now, let me just say that despite some "down" times in 2023, I have no problem "accentuating the positive." I made a new friend or two this year - a definite positive - and I also got to visit Hibbing High School, which turned out to be an unexpected thrill. 

If you don't know who graduated from Hibbing High School (and you can read when you squint), the following picture might give you a hint.  

As for other moments spent at the higher elevations (setting those "low points" aside), that entire trip to Minnesota last summer (including that visit to Hibbing) was right up there. 

So, read the lyrics to Mercer's song. Listen to Mercer sing his song. 

And please don't forget that lesson from my Dad:

Accentuate the Positive

Eliminate The Negative

Latch On To The Affirmative

Don't Mess With Mister In-Between

oooOOOooo

Accent -Tchu-Ate The Positive
Song by Johnny Mercer

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?
Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right
You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In Between
You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between

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Image Credits:

(1) - https://www.discovery.com/nature/the-tallest-mountains-in-the-world-pictures

(2) - Gary A. Patton personal photo

(3) - https://youtu.be/oVuAmcPvybs?si=8N23J65c2sNNkLRs