Homebody You Say?

Another look…

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

“‘There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” Jane Austen, the 19th-century English novelist. Oh yes.

The home was a mixed blessing when I was a kid. My mom was nurturing and my father was difficult. It thrilled me to leave for school at eighteen.

Our house is where we have lived, thank God, for almost thirty years.It has my loving, artistic spouse’s touch. Those touches have given me peace, as have her paintings. Our dwellingplace is where I can awaken, have breakfast, read, write, and experience Kris’ company in the quiet tranquility of the indoors.

It’s no accident that small, romantic, non-epic films are now very hard to sell at the box office. We have high definition, large, crystal clear screens with soundboards with which to enjoy the personal. They have added to the comfort of our era. That change is part of what the Pandemic has…

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The Soft Look

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.” William, Butler Yeats, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th century, Irish poet.

If you are in your last quarter, is that not a beautiful description of reading verse or perhaps prose, that speaks to our long lost youth, ensconced in the richness, wonder and regrets of our old age?

The Sweet Sounds

So behind our house, next to a large window, behind our kitchen table, rests a small, bubbling fountain. It has some character having aged for about thirty years.

Some mornings with my digitally-assisted hearing, it’s been as though we lived by a babbling brook. It’s the best kind of babble.

What a beautiful part of life, the ability to hear. More and more appreciated as mine, SLOWLY, thank God, erodes.

Rich Memories

Joy…

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

“No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you’ve already had.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the late Nobel Prize winning Columbian author. I think he broadly meant the joyful, but dancing is particularly joyful for me.

At twelve, I found myself one of the few kids in cotillion who loved to dance. Having been a drummer in two children’s orchestras at nine, music felt best shared.

Years later, Kristine and I first danced at our wedding in 1977 and last danced at our son’s wedding, six months ago.

They are all sweet remembrances. I think it is the holiness of matrimony, that makes those memories so rich and indelible.

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The Value of Things

“The value of things is not the time they last, but the intensity with which they occur. That is why there are unforgettable moments and unique people.” Fernando Pessoa, a 20th-century Portuguese poet.

 That first time in 1977 I stared into my spouse Kristine’s ocean blue eyes, enhanced by her blue overalls, is embedded in my mind. It was so illuminating; I kept the card on which she gave me her telephone number, which sits in Lucite on our fireplace mantle today. She was unique, as the unicorn on the backside of the artistic card suggested.

The instant in 1980 I took this picture, reflecting Kristine and our infant daughter, full of joy, was an equally intense moment. But here, I captured it on film.

As they say, it’s all good. But here, it’s all unforgettable.

Thinking

Some thoughts on thoughts…

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

“Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And when we cease to grow, we begin to die.” Mortimer J. Adler, a 20th-century American author, and philosopher.

He predated binging on a serial, streaming video. In a sense, he saw it coming. He knew us sports fans are often glued to the tube for hours. He didn’t know how true to life…

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Oh, That Delicate Balance

“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” Saul Bellow, 20th century Pulitzer and Nobel-winning author.

Oh yes, I did win those debate awards 61 years ago. But if I lose a debate with my spouse, I am not insignificant. If I avoid debates with Kristine, I am taking a significant step in the right direction, usually.

On the other hand I can’t be a doormat. We have enough of those at home and as a doormat I become less significant in her eyes.

Oh, those decisions. They get harder on some days than others, particularly in my dotage. But as the non-writer, my mother, often said, “Nobody said it was easy.”

The Vital Links

Another look at my own writing and its blessings…

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

“What does literature do better than anything else? It provides a detailed representation of the inner experience of being alive in a given time and place.” Elif Batman, an American writer. James Salter, an American novelist, wrote: “Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it, the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.”

What was Job thinking through his struggles thousands of years ago? Thank God for the rich aroma from written language. It speaks to us vividly of Job’s experience. 

I followed that advice on a personal level. If the Hungarian granddad I painfully lost when I was eight had written memoirs, I could now understand him more deeply. I would have felt a greater link to him, particularly as my favorite grandparent. 

Because I have published three volumes of memoir, about 60, 000 words, my…

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Writing That Touches Hearts and Funny Bones

“The writing is really important in books that affect me. I read for the writing. The story is usually of less interest to me. It’s the words that break your heart.” James Salter, American writer. 

I think it’s the strong emotional response to the writing that’s important to me. Perhaps figuratively that’s what Salter meant. Perhaps in a broader sense he meant all professional writing

Stand-up comedy demonstrates that premise in heartbreak’s opposite, laughter. There isn’t a story. There are segues. But the lack of a story bears little resemblance to our emotional response, laughter. 

Steinbeck, whose works I love, has nothing unique in his stories, but his writing is something to behold. From East of Eden: “And mixed with these were splashes of California poppies, These too are of a burning color-not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of poppies.” Leaves much and little to the imagination.  It doesn’t break the heart but rather, warms it.

And then there is that rare piece that rises above the multitude of the streamed. For those of you who saw the Apple series Ted Lasso, it was those few lines that broke your heart that raised its three seasons above the commonplace. Don’t you think?

Layers, Your Coin and Hope

A New Years message from 2022 worth another look….

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

The remarkable poet, Robert Frost, made some remarks well worth our precious time. He was America’s first unofficial Poet Laureate. I saw him speak on television when I was 15, at John Kennedy’s inauguration. Frost died two years later on 1/29/63. The poet declared:

“Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

As to Frost’s “layers,” we have things stripped away as we age: parents, spouses, friends, and robust bodily systems. I still weep for my mom at occasional stoplights when her love for our family crosses my mind, her having died 15 years ago.

As to Frost’s “coin,” central to my Messianic Jewish faith…

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