wearing gloves because I don’t want to leave any fingerprints around
This image was first published in the New Yorker Magazine, 88 years ago today on September 25, 1937.
As I read over my last couple of months of Haiku and posts, I wonder and I worry; have I left too many fingerprints around?
You can peruse almost all of James Thurber’s published drawing online at my Thurber Page, For Muggs and Rex.
Been reading Brendan Gill’s, Here at the New Yorker and its unflattering take on James Thurber.
All I can say is echo EB White’s Obit which began with the line, I am one of the lucky ones; I knew him before blindness hit him, before fame hit him …
As for these posts and thoughts, I am typing with gloves on.
I don’t want to leave any fingerprints.
On the other hand …
In the movie Casablanca, when the Germans enter Paris, Ilsa says, “Richard, if they find out your record. It won’t be safe for you here.”
Richard Blaine responds, “I’m on their blacklist already, their roll of honor.“
hard to obey rules, they mean something, I believe … I thought you did, too
But the difference is, you see in this world you learn a set of rules, or you don’t learn them.
But assuming you learn them, you stick by them.
They may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.
And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.
It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.
That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.
From A Rage to Live by John O’Hara,(New York : Random House, 1949).
This little passage by the great (just ask him) John O’Hara kinda more or less sums up my feelings on the current crisis in government we are all living with.
Back in the day when those founding fathers were founding this nation and writing out the rules, they KNEW they had a problem.
They designed a pretty good system where, for the most part, people had a voice in the affairs of the nation and it was all laid out in the rules.
Rules so basic, that the they needed little adjustment, some minor, some glaring, since they were written in to the Constitution and Bill of Rights back in 1787.
Still, when it was finished, signed and published, Dr. Benjamin Franklin issued his famous warning that the people now had, A republic, if you can keep it.
IF … you can keep it.
A warning to be sure but why?
Why?
Because it depended on the people playing by the rules.
Both sides.
Yes, yes, yes, there would be a lot of rule bending to be sure but for the most part the rules held.
Because both sides played by the rules.
And I guess here is where I am the most depressed.
Mr. O’Hara gives some leeway in his discourse on rules, saying … in this world you learn a set of rules, or you don’t learn them.
These folks, all of us, KNOW THE RULES.
Boy, Howdy but a great effort in schools was made to make sure we all knew the rules and how those rules made this country different and why there were important.
Now, those rules may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.
And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.
It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.
That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.
That’s where I am with the rules set up by men but I can say the same thing about the rules set up by God.
The rule in the book of Matthew, Chapter 22, verse 39 that states: ‘Love your neighbor’.
More simply, a rule based on the word, love.
Maybe there are those who will say I am taking the rule ‘out of context.’
But I don’t think so.
If fact, I don’t know how you can take Love your neighbor OUT of context, it is that clear and that simple.
You might as well try to take a stop sign out of context.
If MAGA evangelicals cheer Trump’s hate, if they welcome it, if they adopt it and if they vote for it, then they are responsible for it. His malice becomes theirs.
Love.
Love your neighbor.
Now, this rule may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.
And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.
It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.
That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.
all count the same, some … feel little bit different and this is one of those
“They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those”
− Troy Aikman, on ESPN, after the Lions 38-20 win over Baltimore
I watched last night.
I watched the Detroit Lions pull off a 4 down goal line stand that was one for the ages.
Then I watched the Lions give the ball right back after a typical for me Lions 3 and out and then I watched the Lions give up a score to tie the game.
In my mind, the score had changed to 21-7 Lions and now it was 14-14.
A lot of game to go to be sure, but my old Lions Fan brain kicked in and I said to myself, ‘Same Old Lions.”
I am here to apologize.
I am here to say I was wrong.
I am here to say, I believe and I won’t doubt again.
And I want to say thank you to the Lions for the break away from everything else on my mind and thank you for the respite.
That 4th and 2 pass, well Boy Howdy, I will not doubt again.
As Troy Aikman said as time wound down, “They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those.”
Which I thought was pretty good.
As much as I know about TV and behind the scenes producers and production meetings and planned one-liners, I felt that in this moment, Troy Aikman, who has experienced his share of the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” spoke from the heart, spontaneously.
Mr. Aikman enjoyed the joy with which the Detroit Lions and their coach, Dan Campbell, play the game.
As Mr. Aikman looked at the crowd, the packed stadium, the roaring fans and the home team all in black, a team named for a bird in a poem written by one of America’s darkest poets (who was from Baltimore), and the visiting team comes in, bets all their chips and lays down the winning hand and Mr. Aikman said, “They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those”
You live long enough, you get to write a sentence like this:
Monday Night was why so much of America loves the Detroit Lions.
Mr. Albom closed with:
Bright Lights, Big Lions. America loves a good show. And America, more and more, loves this team. Go watch the tape of this game again. You’ll see why.
Once again folks, these just aren’t the same old Lions.
in the middle way only fight to recover what has been lost and found
East Coker, V (last section):
So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years— Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l’entre deux guerres Trying to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure Because one has only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the general mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer By strength and submission, has already been discovered Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope To emulate—but there is no competition— There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
From Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), (Harcourt, Brace & Company: New York, 1943) by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965).
I was out walking today in the low country South Carolina town of Bluffton.
Bluffton is part of the reason that this part of South Carolina is showing the fastest growth of almost anywhere in the United States.
Its a small town that back in 1990 had less than 900 people and now has over 40,000.
Things are coming to town like stoplights and roundabouts and sidewalks.
All things going modern and very fast.
Yet, as I walked down the sidewalk I noticed the east west straight line path of the sidewalk took a big loop that was out of line.
See, someone on the town planning commission noticed that make a nice, straight sidewalk, the city would have to take down a long leaf pine tree.
There are two types of pine trees that grow in the low country.
The lob lolly pine, the lumbermans delight, is fast-growing, especially in its first 50 years. Because of this, it’s heavily used in timber and pulpwood plantations where trees are typically harvested at 25–35 years old.
The long leaf pine can is much slower to mature. In its “grass stage,” it may stay low to the ground for up to 5–7 years, putting energy into its root system before shooting upward.
These trees can stick around for 250 to 300 years and some have been documented to have lived 400 years.
In an age when you can’t fight city hall, someone decided this tree which was here before we were and will most likely be here when we are gone, was worth making the effort to make a loop in a stretch of sidewalk.
For some reason, I found comfort in this.
For some reason, I found confidence that there is something here worth the fight.
gallup poll results? half country never even heard word watergate
You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll?
Half the country never even heard of the word, Watergate.
Nobody gives a shit.
You guys are probably pretty tired, right?
Well, you should be.
Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up… 15 minutes.
Then get your asses back in gear.
We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there.
Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.
Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I’m going to get mad.
Goodnight.
Jason Robards playing the role of Ben Bradlee in the movie, All the President’s Men.
I was 12 years old in 1972.
I had heard of Watergate.
I have always had a problem with this line in the book and the movie, All the President’s Men.
I find it difficult to believe that 50% of the Country had not heard the word Watergate in 1972.
But there it is.
Today, there are people in the news that capture a world wide discussion that I have never heard of.
But I digress.
Its the Watergate story of Nixon versus the Washington Post that intrigues me.
With the passing of Robert Redford, the movie, All the President’s Men, is getting a lot of air time.
Like so many movies of good versus evil, To Kill a Mockingbird, Casablanca, The Diary of Anne Frank, the Hiding Place, I have to ask, who watches these movies and pulls for the other side, who identifies with the other side.
In this movie, All the President’s Men, are some viewers sad for what happened to Nixon?
Or are they sad that Nixon went down, as I view it today, because he played by the rules, at the least the rules that said what he did was wrong.
Democracy only works if both sides abide by the rules of Democracy.
When Nixon was caught outside the rules, he complied with rule of law and the Constitution and he left.
Who knew back then, All he had to do was ignore the rules and the resignation never had to have taken place.
No Gerald Ford moment.
No Gerald Ford quote, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”
It is my fondest hope that once again and maybe soon we hear those words again:
Our long national nightmare is over.
Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.
Here the people rule.
But ASIDE from all that, are there folks who watch this movie, All the President’s Men, and well …
Or are those folks just smart enough to not watch the movie.
Who wants to waste their time on a happy ending?
BTW – I have more respect in my heart for Corrie Ten Boom than I ever could imagine.
No Haiku For You 