You Know Something I Don’t

That’s a rather ominous title, isn’t it? Sounds like something you type on a typewriter and watch play out in a crime-ridden town like Cabot Cove. Where’s Sheriff Tupper when you need him?

For those playing at home, that was a “Murder, She Wrote” reference. Scratch it off the Bingo card if you have it.

Yesterday, I found out that John Wick is a film series. Did you know that? A lot of people on Twitter seemed to know, which made me feel like I’ve been living under a roof this whole time.

You thought I was going to say, “rock”, didn’t you?

I’ve come across the name, John Wick, before, but from a sports angle. The Vegas Golden Knights skate onto the ice to a “John Wick Vegas Theme”, or at least that’s what I type into YouTube when I want to listen to it.

This whole time, I didn’t know it was a movie. I just thought John Wick was some guy who made music.

Apparently, it’s an action movie? Is that correct? I need a fact-checker because I’ve opened Google too many times and it’s refusing to punch any more holes in my “Frequent Searcher Card” until tomorrow.

If I’m correct, there was a trailer released that had people excited. Yes? May I continue this line of questioning?

I don’t trust movie trailers. Maybe I’ve seen too many, “Next time on Hell’s Kitchen…” previews, where they twist the editing to make it look like someone gets their pinky caught in a blender. Then the next episode arrives and every finger is accounted for.

The Bachelor does the same thing. They make gullible viewers think, “Oh no, the bachelor/bachelorette is going to quit the show because they can’t find love among a group of immature Instagram influencers. How ever will this end?”

It’ll end with everyone fulfilling their contractual obligations. Spoiler Alert.

Back to John Wick.

I’m not much of a movie person, as you know by now. I figured out what my favourite movies were by the time I was 9-years-old and that was good enough for me.

Action films follow the same general pattern, don’t they?

There’s a high-speed car chase late at night on empty, well-lit streets because that’s the easiest time of day for a production crew to shut them down. And then there will be exchanges of gunfire, but the main characters won’t die. The henchman dressed in black will die. Then there will be a serious phone call. Some threats, maybe a bluff. And then a final encounter with stunts.

But hey, don’t let me stick my face in your birthday cake. I’m not here to spit on your interests; we’re all drawn to different things. I can’t judge.

This whole ordeal, though, of feeling like I was the only one who wasn’t aware that John Wick was a film, was a good reminder that we all know something someone else doesn’t, or at least – something most people don’t.

That is our advantage, which is probably why they say “knowledge is power”, rather than “knowledge is sour”.

I’m well aware that when I write about sports, most of you have no clue what I’m talking about and probably scroll right on by or click “like” out of courtesy. I get it.

I can tell you all about the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays and each player on the roster. Whereas you probably can’t tell me anything about them. And why would you?

Some of you could tell me all about superhero movies and the only thing I’d contribute to the conversation would be, “I like when Spider-Man swings from his webs. He beats a lot of traffic that way.”

We each have our own area of expertise, whether we realize it or not.

That being said, I’ve always tried to make an effort to not box myself in as a “sports person” even if that’s how people see me.

I have so many strange interests that don’t align with each other.

I’ll talk to you about pretty much any sport, including wrestling…but then I’ll talk about The Bachelor…but then I’ll bring you to the other corner of my brain and bounce around ideas about true crime cases and conspiracy theories…and then I’ll swing you back to the other side with my knowledge of teen drama shows that were meant for a female demographic – but don’t mind me, just expanding my horizons -…and then I can talk about songs you didn’t think I knew, or how Hanging By A Moment by Lifehouse was my favourite song in Grade 4…and then the cherry on top will be a discussion about comedy and how your favourite late night host steals a lot of their stuff from other late night hosts.

I’m out of breath.

My unwritten goal in life is to know as much as I can about as many different things as possible. That being said, there are a million things I don’t know – even small things I’m too ashamed to admit.

Additionally, there are things that don’t stick to my brain. Maybe there’s not enough caramel, or sticky foods, in my diet. I don’t know.

I didn’t know much about American Politics until 2008, when I took a Media Studies class.

For one assignment, there was a list of about 8-10 topics, from which we had to pick five and write a one-page response for each. One of the topics was about sports, but I didn’t pick it.

Instead, I chose to write about the Barack Obama/John McCain debate. Why? The reasons are convoluted.

And then eight years later, on this blog, I introduced a new series called “Viewing Notes” and my first post in that category was for a Presidential Debate. I just made that connection as I was writing this.

Life comes full circle, if you pay attention.

If I stayed in my sports bubble for that assignment, would I have grown to care about elections, or news coverage with twelvety-six faces on the screen? I don’t know. Maybe I made a mistake, now that I think about it.

I think it’s cool when people know a little bit about a lot of things. It means they have a base for their knowledge to grow.

That’s why every subject in university has some sort of introductory course. Yeah, it’s boring to learn all the definitions and I hated not diving straight in to the interesting stuff, but if you don’t know the words, how can you use them in sentences?

In Grade 3, I thought a cornucopia was a food and claimed “it is good, too” in a Thanksgiving poem we had to write. Learn the words, kids.

Also, it’s 2019. You can Google, “What’s that thing on my foot” and get over a billion responses, which is to say: nothing is stopping you from looking up anything you want and learning more about it.

Does this mean I’m going to look up everything related to John Wick now?

No, because I’m a hypocrite who wrote a whole post where I patted myself on the back for knowing stuff about a bunch of unrelated things, while not disclosing the topics about which I know very little.

But you don’t have to be like this. You can be better.

You know something I don’t and I know something you don’t. Maybe, one day, we’ll tell each other.

Until then, I’ll be hanging on a moment, making Murder, She Wrote references until you recognize them on your own.

Blog posts also come full circle, if you pay attention.

What do you know that most people don’t? What do you want to learn more about?