Today is my good friend Billy’s birthday, so it seems as good a time as any to give him a blog entry in his honor. I’ve been looking forward to doing this for some time, as there is much to say about this character. I like to think I’ve had the privilege, in the few short years I’ve known him, of being especially close with Billy, more so than most people. But this isn’t because I’ve really “earned” anything from him; I’m just kind of lucky that our personalities mesh.
Truth be told, I don’t think my character really matches up to his. Billy is, almost without exception, a considerably more patient, mature and generous human being than I will ever be. His primary motive in almost everything is the good of those around him, and yet very few people are really aware of that, because he does so little to broadcast it. Everyone who knows Billy owes him something. If you’re reading this, you know you owe Cover a solid, just think back and remember it. Remember that time you couldn’t pay your tab at the bar, or you needed a lift at two in the morning, or you lost something and he spent all day finding it, etc? I know you remember. We all do. It’s strange how fast we forget the mountain of good will this man gives us. Maybe he wants us to forget.
Most of you know that there is a running joke about how “arrogant” Billy is, that he has some enormous, insatiable beast of an ego. Corelyn and I have always privately believed that this little urban legend is created and sustained by William himself in order to provide a cover, so no one will notice the lengths and depths he will unblinkingly go to for the people he loves. The awful, ironic truth is that Billy may be one of the most ego-less people I’ve ever known, he simply refuses to make himself the center of his own universe like the rest of us.
For a person like me, who is incredibly selfish and determined to draw attention to myself, Billy is sometimes painful to be around. It’s hard for me to understand how he can be the way he is, because fundamentally I’m a coward and it’s as is important for me that people see my good deeds as it is that I do them. The difference between a person like me and a person like him is that Bill cares about others without a single thought of reward. And so, as he turns 23, the world remains blissfully ignorant, still categorizing him as a megalomaniac dedicated to his own greatness, because that’s the way he wants it.
For a couple of years now, Billy and I have had this running gag where we tell each other incredibly sexist jokes and then laugh uproariously, because we were both raised in households full of strong women and we can’t fathom how these punch lines make any sense. The idea that William Cover is an ego nut is basically the same joke: it’s so funny because it’s not only incorrect, it’s diametrically opposed to the truth. Nothing could possibly be less accurate.
Happy Birthday, Billy. You fooled us all again.
Lies!!
Well done, sir.
And you’re a patsy.