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Ain't it the truth!

Springtime and being elderly

For the first time in my life I feel like an elderly rural matron. I am sitting as I write, listening to Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion. The St. Olaf's Girls Choir is singing, "Will You Go Lassie Go?"--a song I remember best from my Uncle Jerry's place when I was a child. He had all the Clancy Brothers albums and we listened whenever we visited. He's been gone a long time now. So have my parents. A Prairie Home Companion is evocative of another time, when families sat down after Saturday dinner, after mowing the lawn, fixing the car, and painting the shed. They listened to the radio and watched television, Ozzie and Harriet, Your Hit Parade, Sing Along with Mitch. Garrison Keillor can make me remember those times, not at my home but at my aunts' houses in Long Island and Peekskill. They were gentle times of blue twilights and warm breezes.

At the end of this school year I will retire, in spite of not being of an age to do so. I am fortunate enough to be able to leave early. However, it is extremely disconcerting to realize that I will no longer have to get up early and that my life will no longer revolve around "getting ahead." In fact I had gotten to the point where I felt that I was just spinning my wheels instead of getting ahead. Actually, I have completely forgotten exactly where "ahead" might be. So for the past few days I have been feeling a tad nostalgic for my youth. I truly hate nostalgia. It is doubtlessly the most negative of emotions. So once again I need to do something crazy in order to formulate a future lest I risk becoming a victim of the past.

Spring is the season of all that is new. It is the time of rebirth and resurrection so I am going to resurrect my earlier self. Fernando and I are thinking of spending a few of our hard earned dollars on buying 60 day bus passes and setting off to look for America.

I have seen A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood in Massachusetts but I think I want to see it at home in the Fitzgerald Theater in Minneapolis or maybe at the State Fair. I also want to see if there are still 4H clubs in the Midwest, peanut farmers in Georgia, and cowboys in Texas.

I once wrote an English paper about the road trip as a theme in American novels. This should be a monumental road trip. Maybe I'll write a novel. In the meantime, I'll be posting here.

A rant on education issues.

I have never been a fan of labor unions. I has always been my opinion that most unions are simply an extra layer of management but one that takes my money. However, I am actually proud of Michael Mulgrew in that he has waited to answer the nonsense that has been promulgated by the mayor of New York City and his henchwoman Cathleen Black until he had all the facts pertinent to the possibility of teacher lay offs in New York City. Mike Bloomberg and his former henchman, Joel Klein, have founded Education Reform Now (Klein is its CEO) in order to terrify the people of New York City into believing that the State is going to force him into laying off up to 21,000 teachers. Mayor Mike would have us believe that he will be forced to lay off all of the young, wonderful teachers he has hired in the last five years while seniority rules will allow old, stale people to remain in their jobs. First of all, there is no real crisis. At the moment New York City has a surplus of $2billion. How much left over money do we need? Cuomo is suggesting cuts of $59 million. That still leaves about $1.5 billion in surplus money. Why should anyone lose a teaching job? The UFT is dead right on this one.
The mayor simply wants to get rid of those who cost the most money. Perhaps he needs to hire a few more chefs for Gracie Mansion. By the way, I am one of those who was hired in the last five years. I should go first. It's only fair.

We all agree that American education is not what it should be. By the way, people have been agreeing on that point since I was a child--many years ago. We are probably not as bad as we think--we never have been. However, I am presently watching a frightening trend. At all levels of education, we seem to believe that more instructional time, more testing, and more work on the part of teachers will solve our problems. I find this frightening because as a child of the Cold War I was always taught that if the communists took over children would be raised by the government instead of by their parents! The government would use then brain wash American children!!! In the words of Vladimir Lenin, "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." Wow! If children spend most of their time in school, think of what I can put in their heads.

I propose the opposite--children should have more time to play! Friedrich Froebel tells us that "Play is the work of children." How very true. More things have been discovered through play than through research. Man did not invent fire. He discovered it by messing around. Kids need time to mess around. Parents, please look at the people who are responsible for public education--business people all. Do you really think that they have your best interests, or those of your children at heart? I think not.

Gee this summer went fast!

On July 11th we made up our minds and set out for Maine. I have always wanted to see the Atlantic Puffin and we discovered that their southernmost nesting area is on Egg Island in Maine. So we set off for Boothbay Harbor where we spent a week eating lobster on Cabbage Island, crusing at sunset and observing puffins fishing for dinner, and watching harbor seals off the side of a boat. Maine really is "The way life should be." We ate lobster and blueberries every single day and I think that Maine is very likely the most beautiful place in the world. In fact we were so enchanted that we returned on August 2-3 to look at houses for possible retirement on the "midcoast." I am sitting here in a mid-August heat wave wishing I were still there.

Off again...

Fernando and I have a second vacation coming up this week so we will see what happens to stimulate thinking along the way. I do not even know where we are going yet so it will be a surprise for all of us. Peace and enjoy the weekend.

Further summer vacation

While in Rochester we visited the George Eastman House and took the guided tour of the mansion. The docent who led our particular tour commented to me privately that she was surprised at my reaction when I heard that Eastman had committed suicide. I winced because that is my reaction to suicide. It is an act that I truly hate. I hope that my words never jump up and bite me on the butt. I can understand why people who are in terrible pain take their own lives. However, the act itself seems so totally self-centered that I cannot understand their justifications.

George Eastman killed himself at age 77. He was very likely suffering from spinal stenosis which gave him a shuffling gait. He had some difficulty descending the staircase at his home. He could no longer go on safari. One detail that the docent did not mention was that it was 1932, the height of the Great Depression, when few of his friends could afford to amuse themselves as lavishly as they had previously and I am sure that this led to Eastman's own great depression. He wrote a note stating that his work was done so why wait.

I think that I may have at least a partial answer to that question. Why wait? Waiting is a major part of the human condition. We wait for so many good things. One waits nine months to see a new life begin; we wait for birthdays, holidays, visits with loved ones, vacations. Why not wait for death? Death is a sad occasion for those who love us but hopefully not for the person who has departed. Even for those who do not believe in an after-life, death is a release from pain, whether psychic or physical. It is worth the wait.

The other side of waiting for death rather than precipitating its occurrence is that one cannot know what will happen next. Telling a child about how things were when we were children helps to teach history and to continue our culture. Story telling of this kind can be done most effectively by the old because we have the longest experience from which to draw memories. At the same time, we can continue to create memories by experiencing everything possible. I may not wish to jump from an airplane but I can enjoy a roller coaster ride or a trip to a new place.

Even if I do not particularly enjoy all of my experiences, recounting them may change some one's life.

Many years ago a 9th grade art teacher told my class that while most of us had no talent, anyone could learn to draw and to appreciate art. She also told us that getting a C in her class was perfectly fine, as long as we gave it our all. No one had ever given me permission to be imperfect before and I have held onto what she said for the rest of my life. I would never have been able to realize this fundamental truth if that elderly woman had decided that her life's work had already been accomplished and she did not need to wait for death. Death is worth waiting for because life is worth living. Peace.

Still More Summer Vacation

In my search for the old, the traditional, and the nostalgic, my husband and I stumbled across the Vintage Drive In in Avon, NY (Please pronounce Avon with a short A.). For $8.00 each we were able to watch Johhny Dep make a fool of himself trying to impersonate John Dillinger. The movie was unspeakably boring but the surroundings were incredibly evocative of a time or at least a condition that really was kinder and gentler. We chose to see the "adult" film because we have no small children left at home. However, the drive in was packed with families lining up to see Ice Age 3 and the families were in many ways more interesting than the films themselves.

I miss drive-in movies. They were a place where whole families came out and brought their children at 7:00 pm for a film that started at 9:00. This meant that dozens of pajama clad kids would crowd into playgrounds and wear themselves out for two hours before the film began. Mom and Dad would buy popcorn, corn dogs, and sodas just before the movie started and there would be a stampede back to the cars, with all the kids yelling "The movie's starting!" After about ten minutes of advertising for the refreshment stand, the main feature began and the youngest children immediately fell asleep. Their older siblings followed about an hour later. This left Mom and Dad an additional hour or two to just sit in the car, eating popcorn and left over corn dogs, and maybe hold hands, perhaps even kiss once or twice. The drive in was a place where parents could date--with their children. We don't really have places like the drive in any more.

Today if a couple with kids wants to go to a movie after dark they must get a baby sitter. At the going rate of $10.00 per hour for the sitter, $11.00 per ticket, $20.00 for snacks, even a night out at the movies will cost about $70.00--an amount that not many parents with small children can afford very often; also not the most glamorous evening. Today's young people must spend a lot if they want to have what is now touted as a good time. Good times consist of expensive meals, drinks, dancing, and a cab ride home. Nights like these run several hundred dollars and occur rarely (if ever) in many people's lives. I believe that this leads to a sense of disappointment and disenchantment of the sort that is called "Everyone is having more fun that me." Given the fact that families no longer have many outlets for simple pleasures, and a media that bombards us with "reality show stars" (supposedly ordinary people) spending thousands on a good time, is it any wonder that families have morphed into something other than what we once knew?

This week's Time magazine has an article on infidelity and its effect on marriage. While I agree that infidelity is a chronic problem for the American family and will write more on this tomorrow, I also think that we have simply lost a great deal of our ability to have fun with our spouses, and to appreciate them for the good people they are--or we thought they were when we married them. More on this tomorrow. Peace and go kiss your significant other.