You Cannot Be Serious
The following article was written when Donald Trump was known best for his role as the lead personality in the TV show “The Apprentice” who famously declares, “You’re fired!” –MLO
You cannot be serious!
Such were the words uttered by John McEnroe, tennis’ sometimes loveable brat, in complete frustration with a chair umpire in the late 1970’s. Donald Trump has taken a similar stance with Forbes Magazine’s estimation of his net worth, insisting that it is much higher than Forbes’ estimate of $4.5 billion.
Donald Trump is serious about his business. He knows his numbers backwards, sideways, and forward. He cares deeply about the perception of his net worth among his peers in business. I was reminded of Donald Trump as I was listening to a local pastor deliver a Sunday morning message drawn from the example of — well, Mickey Mouse.
Yup. The pastor also included slides of his family’s recent vacation trip to Disneyland. The trip was so inspirational, it seems, that he was able to draw several Sundays’ worth of messages from the experience.
I was struck by his lack of seriousness. I wondered if he had chosen ministry as a career because he figured it would be an easy job, with paid semi-annual Disneyland vacations with the family, a salary sufficient to maintain a library of Hangover movies and Halo video games– and that he would never have to get dressed up. Whatever his reasons were, it’s almost impossible to conclude that he chose church ministry because he thought it might be important work.
In the local coffee shops, you can easily spot the pastor. He’s the one who loves being treated with reverential deference, who doles out paternalistic advice on spiritual discipline, but who himself can’t muster the energy to put on long pants, or real shoes, or a collared shirt, or shave three days in the same week. He’s still acting like an 18-year-old just out of high school who thinks the rest of his life will be summer vacation. And he always lets you pay for his coffee.
On the bright side, though– he’ll never be fired by Donald Trump.