Fellow Creatures - Wright Morris
The Piano Tuner - Peter Meinke
Peter Meinke – 1932 - ????
With harsh turns of tuning pegs and string pops and banging of
keys…drunken shouts and forcible confinement, we find piano tuners entering our lives and forcing us to look at who we really are.
Driving us to the edge of insanity…and possibly leading us directly into that very state…they do us what we think is harm but should and could possibly be a great service.
Stepping outside of our boundaries is healthy. Being pushed by “tuners” is a healthy thing.
We must learn to recognize the tuners in our lives and allow them to do their job.
We must also tune ourselves. Push ourselves into situations both physically and mentally that pop a few strings or break a few old ivory keys.
The strings and keys will be replaced with newgut and whiter ivory.
“How hypocritical” it is of me to write the above sentences you say…those of you who know me.
Yes, I battle with my tuners. It may appear that I resist their applications.
But in reality, I allow my tuners to work on me daily.
You see, my tuners do not pound the keys, pop strings and confine me.
My tuning pegs are slowly turned…so slow that their movement cannot be consciously detected.
My keys are pounded upon - but their destruction and replacement happens at such a speed that many processes as inactivity and stagnation.
And my confinement…I see it not as solitary- but as a gift of freedom.
Clothing - John L'Heureux
John L'Heureux - October 26, 1934 –
Quite a few of us find ourselves wearing the tight white collar.
Quite a few of us find ourselves shedding that collar for so
meone…something…or just perhaps, ourselves.
I found myself in that position back in the mid 90s, and I discovered that changing my clothing back then was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Now, re-reading the above sentence, I would like to change the word “changing” to “supplementing”.
I made the additions to my wardrobe for me.
I don’t think I have reached the final outcome of that clothing supplementation - and perhaps I’ll never see the final outcome of the decisions I made so many years ago.
I am satisfied with what has happened and I’ll continue to live in my weird, strange mixed up set of clothes.
You see, I added to my toolbox rather than replacing certain tools.
You’ve Come a Long Way Mickey Mouse –Bev Jafek
Bev Jafek- ???
Mickey has lived his life.
He’s lived his life, seen us, and our place within his life, and reached a certain set of conclusions about existence…the deep meaning of it.
I’m about to step through a major door in my existence on this planet (easy…it’s the only one I’ve ever been on, and the only one I ever will be on). Once I pass through this door, I feel that how I have lived up to that point ( the point where I pass through the door) in my life will be re-focused and my set of conclusions that I feel I have reached so far in my life will be jarred.
This is a great thing.
We all need to be jarred…shaken and disturbed.
It mixes the oil with the vinegar.
But then there are those that are never shaken.
I have a certain fascination with people who work in parking garage ticket taking booths.
I stress over their lives. I worry about them in their little boxes. It’s easy for me to think that they could find another job…but could they really? I mean, has their life been lead to a point where they fit within a predetermined mold that only allows them to sit in this small box and collect parking garage tickets? How does this happen?
And then I think…”do they enjoy what they are doing?”
They have a job…they are making some money…
I think that I also overly my intellectual curiosities onto them.
Maybe they don’t want to “live a life” or they don’t know how to “live a life” and all they really know is their life in the box, and that box is comfortable to them.
I just find their existence really interesting.
Mickey says –
“And then I understood the enormity I had become I was like you. My life was lived on a line parallel to yours, but my capacity to reflect my own essence was so horribly perfect. I had discovered, as only an image can, that all your ability to think and feel is based on truncated images. What an uncomfortable creature you are – how prone to obsession, myopia, how divided from all you survey, what a watcher, defender, conquer. And so it is with love – the more distant I was from her, the more incited I became.
Them I truly saw the world you had created. For you are the species who creates a world to invite images. I found that vehicles, parks, whole streets, even cities had been created to incite images. It was astounding – I now understood what your kind had been feeling, what so much of your world was intended for. I became fascinated with the dialectics of people alone – driving in cars, hidden away with their books, sitting in their homes, drinking in whatever corner the world allowed. For I now knew a human secret: When alone, people have a truly horrifying hunger for another person, a hunger beyond satisfaction, a life of images held like a hand of cards against fate”
What a wonderful set of lines Jafek has written.
The Sudden Trees – H.E. Francis
H.E. Francis - H(erbert) E(dward) Francis - born 1924
And with this story, we find another that I think will stay with me a lifetime.
I’m feeling particularly sensitive to stories about children now – for obvious reasons.
My mind is in that state where anything that has to do with a child, childhood, parenting or family that passes across my radar…is instantly tagged and my hyper-aware, laser-like focus zeros in on it and I need to know everything about what is being presented.
This particular story is the second in this collection dealing with the death of a child and it comes directly after the wonderful story by Starkey Flythe.
I read both of these stories back-to-back one morning last week, and it may not have been such a good idea.
Then again, with this quality of writing, I suppose that anytime I read it, the impact would have been the same.
Found a page about Francis and it contained the following quote by him that gives his statement of writing. It is wonderful
"I want each story to hold in its clarity its own profound sense of the mystery we live. In my work, the story has to fix on what I find to be real (everlasting) in human experience within the flexing language of madness and the forms of chaos in our time.
"I want to live in my stories the lives, the spontaneous momentary revelations, of all who really want to live before they die, or who are not aware that they are alive, or who want to live what they cannot."
Wow…just wow.
“ flexing language of madness and the forms of chaos in our time.”
The madness and chaos of the early to mid eighties was certainly different than what we have today…but they surely had some shit going down back then.
I know that the thought of being vaporized at any moment weighed heavily on my 12 year old mind.
Now, the peace and security of dying instantly in a blinding flash of light has been replaced with the possibility of a long tortuous death brought on by a poison, virus, dirty bomb, a creative terrorist attack…or even worse, that you witness the death of your family due to any of the above.
In his writing, Francis uses his skill to place you directly into the body of the narrator, holding the sickly body of the young girl he is caring for.
You feel his emotions as she progresses through the stages of her sickness.
We should all be fortunate enough to give comfort to our loved ones as the pass away. We hold them at birth, and we should be able to hold them or be held at death.
What a wonderful story.
Walking, Walking - Starkey Flythe
Starkey Flythe - February 15, 1935
Nice meaty story – add a touch of psychiatric illness, and you have just the type of short I really like.
I’m not sure why the thoughts come to me when I’m in the shower. I’m sure someone out there has written why our minds are more at ease or creative in that particular space.
The thoughts come, and at times, especially in the mornings I have to choke back emotions…M is usually on the other side of the shower curtain, and she can tell by my face if there is something heavy going on in my mind.
The thoughts concern the death of a loved one, and how I would react. The minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years after their death.
Would I ever truly get over it?
What sort of effect would it have on my mental state?
What would my life become without that person?
It’s impossible to predict how we might react. All we can do is look at previous behaviors and attempt to derive some sort of knowledge as to what could happen.
I have been fortunate. The deaths in my family have all taken place far away from me.
Their impact was slight.
I’m afraid of the future…and what will not be slight.
Roses - Margaret Edwards
Margaret Edwards - ???
How long does of an encounter does it take for person’s characteristics to become grafted into part of your personality?
I suppose you must take into consideration both parties and the circumstances of the encounter.
I meet people, work with people, and if my time with them is long enough, involved enough for me to gauge parts of them…I’ll let a little grafting take place…I’ll invite the grafting and even promote it.
I’m conscious not to let the graft create a new named “rose” but there is a bit of noticable change.
Seek people to graft with and consider the positive aspects of accepting a little bit of their world in your life.
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Grace Paley Dec. 11, 1922 – August 22 2007 To begin with, it was pleasant to see a story in this volume with the focus on a group of wo...