H C WALLACE
This Month: What's Love Got To Do With It? & I Don't Need
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Many yeas ago Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby made a pact. They would no longer use the verb love in a love song. Those songs that used the word love had become tiresome and did little to explain the essence of that emotion. Afterward he always violated his own rule whenever he included in his repertoire that famous song 'Fly Me To The Moon' which ends in 'I Love You'. He probably forgave himself since that Count Basie arrangement was an audience favorite. That tune did include lines which were emotive of the feeling of love.
During a concert years ago Sinatra made an announcement that he had recently heard one of the finest live songs written. He revealed the song by the Beatles which was 'Something In The Way She Moves'. He then sang that song which did not use the word love. The song was emotive of love.
Something in the way she moves
attracts me like no other lover
something in the way she woos me
somewhere in her smile she knows
that I don't need no other lover
something in her style that shows me
don't wanna leave her now
somewhere in her smile she knows
that I don't need no other lover
something in her style that shows
you know I believe and how
and all I have to do is think of her
something in the things she shows me
Sinatra probably had not heard the song 'Paint It Black' by the Rolling Stones or if he had he would not have referenced it since he would have considered the Stones as too rebellious. Neither was he an R&B or hard rock devotee. 'Paint It Black' (composed extemporaneously) is one of the best love lost songs to be penned. It has an insistent method composed in a Bolero motif with an ostinato with a grinding hard rock edge. The singer's world is described as bleak, colorless and bereft of nature's beauty. His entire world is black. All of the former joy and laughter is missing. She no longer wakes with him to meet the morning sun. The depiction of this bleak existence without his lover and all that is missing in his life are some of the very events or emotions that you would find in a love song. What is missing in the singer's life is revealed as many of the emotive expressions of love.
I see a red door
and I wanted it painted black
no colors any more
I want them to turn black
I see a line of cars
and they're all painted black
with flowers and my love
both never to come back
I look inside myself
and see my heart is black
no more will my green sea
go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing
happening to you
if I look hard enough
into the setting sun
my love will laugh with me
before the morning comes
I see the girls walk by
dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
until my darkness goes
I wanna see the sun
blotted out form the sky
I wanna see it painted , painted
painted black....
At the far end of the love song spectrum we have Paul McCartney and Wings with 'Silly Little Love Songs'. The phrase 'I Love You' is repeated seventeen times. Over cooked?
You'd think people would've had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me and I see it isn't so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs
and what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know
Well, Sir Paul nothing is wrong with that since you sang it. If you put 'Goldie Locks and The Three Bears' to music we would listen and possibly like it. Seriously, what Paul emotes with this song is a reminder that we all play silly love songs on the radio or cell phone and we happily sing along sometimes and there can't be anything wrong with that. It's innocent joy. Caution. Too much can get mushy like over cooked pasta.
I Don't Need
by H C Wallace
A puffer in a bowler hat
gave me some dusty book
he said read philosophy, all that
read and read to the end
I ran past the dusty pages
and only read The End
I don't need these stories
I'm doin' fine in my skin
I've got my own curiosities
I'm travelin' fine by me
A man told me how its been
gives me a ten dollar bill
you'll know politics for that
then know 'bout buyin' men
I donna need empty words
that shackle other men
I don't need these stories
I'm doin' fine in my skin
I've got my own curiosities
I'm travelin' fine by me
A holy man says it's a fact
gave me some religion book
read these twisted tales
you'll be so better for that
I got no idea on religious words
to make men stone other men
I donna need such stories
I'm doin' fine in my own skin
I donna need such stories
I'm doin' fine in my own skin
(reactionary lyrics - perhaps for Bob Dylan, troubadour)
PREVIOUS ISSUES
Slave to The Party
Listening to Sen. Mitch McConnell deliver his farewell address in his familiar monotone, somber and plodding, one was prepared that not a word of inspiration was on the horizon. Sen. McConnell would relinquish the scepter of the throne of the hallowed halls of the Senate. He said that he had not dreamed that he would have lasted for so many years as a member of the Senate. There are many citizens who dared not dream of that longevity as well.
Sen. McConnell has been castigated for invoking the filibuster, packing the Supreme Court and consistently voting the party line. Those who condemn Sen. McConnell for that are privileged to do so, however they need to be reminded that Sen. McConnell never violated any statute by his actions as a member of the Senate or as majority leader of the Senate. Those who object should instead promote a statute of term limitations for the Supreme Court Justices, demand a limitation of the filibuster (or permanently end it) and accept that voting the party line is a reality to be accepted and enjoyed by either political party for issues involving the public welfare. What is apparent and should trouble anyone are his actions which underscores his stubborn adherence to obstructionism. He became the little screw that fell into the cogwheel of our engine of democracy and gleefully watched it grind and sputter to a halt.
Consequently the following Bill of Reprimand is issued:
1. Sen. McConnell announced that the objective of his party was to make sure that Pres. Obama would serve only one term. We immediately detected Mitch's lack of subtly. That blatant declaration was proof simple that we could expect obstruction would be his Thor's hammer. It would be normal and constructive for a Senator or Representative to announce one or two legislative programs they wished to see advanced. His announcement was an early indication that Sen. McConnell was not willing or capable of engaging in compromise to solve national problems or offer cogent alternative ideas for proposed legislation. That, as political pundits would say, was the beginning of a dog fight, though not reflective of a televised cage fight, would demean the standard of debate in our democratic institution that has continued to the present.
2. Sen. McConnell would continue to obstruct the administrations of Pres. Obama and Pres. Biden while ignoring the inane conspiracy theories, trash talk and childish bickering of his fellow legislators. So to ignore the rancor is to permit it. Legislative programs by the opposing party lingered and gathered cobwebs in the House so much so that the public had forgotten the status of any bill that held their interest. The public voice had been muted.
3. Sen. McConnell led his party to oppose stricter finance laws and banking reform. He led strong opposition to Pres. Obama's Affordable Care Act. His party's filibuster consumed valuable time that delayed other pending legislation. Little wonder why we hear that familiar complaint that nothing in D.C. ever gets done. An over statement of course, but it is delay upon delay. For those who believed in the principle 'promote the general welfare' Sen. McCain cast the deciding approving vote. That was an opportunity for Pres. Trump to start a hate campaign against Sen. McCain.
4. A Proposal to establish a commission to investigate the January 6th Capitol attack was proposed and Sen. McConnell rallied Republican Senators to Filibuster the proposal. Hence the proposal was voted down.
5. Sen. McConnell typically opposed stronger regulations to mitigate climate change. Was he a climate denier? Possibly, or did he ignore the issue only because the opposition party was in favor. Probably his objective was to make sure the opposing party would not have any recognition for success.
6. Sen McConnell voted to convict and remove Pres. Bill Clinton. McConnell held the vote along party lines. As it was the total vote was primarily along party lines. At the conclusion of the verdict not to impeach it was determined that Pres. Clinton's actions neither compromised the national security of America nor risked the liberties of the American people. It was Monica Lewinsky who was found guilty as she was dragged across asphalt by the entertainment media. Sen. McConnell may not have realized that to vote Pres. Clinton out for a tryst between adults would make us similar to a parliamentary government (procedure) that would translate to a 'no confidence' vote and expel Pres. Clinton.
7. Sen. McConnell had an interesting plan to limit federal expenditures for the COVID 19 relief when he proposed that states be allowed to declare bankruptcy instead of receiving COVID 19 financial relief aid. It is not certain if that idea was grim humor about the expanding budget. A lawyer should know that by law states cannot declare bankruptcy.
8. As the House began public hearings on the first Pres. Trump impeachment Sen. McConnell stated that there was not a chance that the Senate would convict him and remove him from office. Sen. McConnell was successful in blocking witnesses during the impeachment hearing. He stated that he was not an impartial juror in the trial since it was a political process. Obviously it is a political process but it also requires the evaluation of means, motive and opportunity in context of the crime as per the constitution. Was he returning to parliamentary procedure? He must have agreed with Sen. Susan Collins when she stated after the trial that Pres. Trump had learned his lesson. Anyone would interpret that to mean that he was guilty and in the future he would be a good boy.
9. Upon the second impeachment hearing of Pres. Trump, which concerned his incendiary remarks
of the attack on Jan 6th, McConnell stated that he believed that Pres. Trump was guilty of all charges. Further he said if the election were overturned based on mere allegations by the losing side our democracy would enter a death spiral. That was an honest appraisal of the fraud allegations. However, the 'stop the steal' motto, in some form or other, continued in congress. Sen. McConnell would not admonish those Senators or Representatives who continued to promote the stolen election in public. The virus had been set loose through the Capitol building and there was no killing the monster that Sen. McConnell helped to create.
10. Sen. McConnell was one of the leaders of congress who aided and abetted the lunatic faction of Congress. The Congress became a daily sitcom of warped conspiracies, vindictive insults tossed at one another and personal insults promoted by members in the lower and upper chambers. Naturally this reinforced the voters who put them in office to 'mix things up' and achieve influence for other grievous citizens. FOX news, not registered as a news org., held court everyday to further influence the public and support the congressional members who held lunatic theories. Sen. McConnell never voiced objection since the spurious conspiracy theories and hate speech were directed against the political party that he opposed.
There is a difference between a party member and a party slave. It would be potentially dangerous to favor the latter. The latter would not be proactive and present new ideas, would filibuster as a minority to defeat the majority party and thereby limit democracy. They would not admonish fellow members if they spread false conspiracies if it helped their party, They would not favor effective and just legislation suggested by the opposing party since the opposing party should not be seen as successful. The party slave will not be interested in the ethical behavior of its members as long as they are true to the party.
Pass The Fire Hose
A physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, science author, contributor on X and You Tube made a presentation on You Tube a couple of weeks ago on the subject of climate change. It was not her first presentation on the subject. She had produced others explaining the cause and effect of climate change. The latest one was quite different. She was angry and frustrated with the interpretation of some climate data to such an extent that she dropped the F bomb during her presentation.
Most of her presentations concern classical physics and quantum physics. On a couple of occasions she has weighed in on climate change. She admits that her most disliked videos are about climate change. It seems like we dislike anything about the topic and she understands that. We are thinking.....all right already, what are we going to do about it? Ho hum. She tagged that correctly. Perhaps many listeners became bored with the subject and instead fell into the black hole of Tic Tok. She is perturbed about one single number that climate scientists are talking about and that is Climate Sensitivity. To start, she points out average temperatures reached an all time high, artic sea ice has decreased drastically and heat waves covered a large portion of the earth. The overall trend indicates that it will be steeply up and will deteriorate rapidly. This has to do with the quantity of climate sensitivity and that is the property of climate models that one finds when one doubles the carbon dioxide over the level of pre-industrial times. The climate sensitivity predicts how quickly temperatures are going to rise in the future. Several graphs were displayed to support the presentation and we can assume that she has reviewed that R^2 regression analysis, time series, seasonal adjustment exercises that any serious scientist would.
She stressed the importance of cloud activity as an important element of climate analysis. We must conclude that the data that we have now on clouds must include the data on clouds that we had in the past. However, that data is not available from millions of years ago. We do have observations now. Climate models are not good at weather forecasts (different parameters) but one weather model she referred to can be incorporated into a climate analysis and that forecast was incorporated into an old model that previously did not have the changes in the cloud physics. She found that the new model gave a different forecast from the previous one. That model had a climate sensitivity of more than 5.8 deg,C and the previous model of 2019 indicated 2 to 4.5 deg. C. that indicates how quickly our planet will become uninhabitable if we don't amend our behavior, if the new analysis is correct. She does not profess that the new analysis is correct but there is reason to believe that it could be correct. We are in serious trouble if it is. If this cloud data is correct then it means that we could be facing an economic collapse in as few as twenty years. The frustration is understood as she comments further that it is so stupid that the lives of all people on this planet depend on the obscure properties of water droplets from clouds.
A good point. If we had been serious about the issue of climate change twenty years ago we would not be facing this 'obscure' issue of water droplets in clouds. That point may be of some scientific interest but it would have been a moot issue if we could have resolved the problem of human generated heat increase.
She concludes with the familiar tale of 'future world' which is a planet with mass migration, starvation, financial disaster, new viruses and general chaos. A few proposals are advanced: put a price on carbon emissions, we need more nuclear power and expand renewals. It would be foolish to ignore these proposals. The best advance that we can make is to use more nuclear power. We need hundreds of small nuclear plants as opposed to those large multi-billion dollar boondoggles that get eternally hamstrung with changing regulations. Bill Gates has funded the design and construction of an effective smaller sodium nuclear plant that is currently under construction..... and yes he will make a profit. These recommendations could eventually turn the tide. Many of us are diligently recycling plastic and paper, turning down the thermostat in the winter and some have turned their driving choice to vehicles that get thirty-plus mpg. However, it does not amount to any significance what we do as individuals. It takes a government to turn the corner on climate change. It will require the populace to demand that our government impose strict regulations to abate the heat wave. But that will not have full effect unless all major governments enact strict regulations. Will China, Russia and India enact effective regulations? Granted, it would be an enormous effort to get any government to move quickly on climate change.
I will turn seventy-seven in a few more months (possibly) and in some way I feel that I have tripped and fallen onto another planet. Those of my age have lived happily through the best of times while devouring the resources of our planet. It was manifest destiny that we would consume every morsel in our reach since we are the voracious species. I think of my grandchildren and it seems that they will live a short, compromised life while I knew the best of times all of my life. I have run up
a sizable tab and unfortunately they will be paying my bill.
Epistle for Palestine & A Very Trumpian Christmas
In the present day we may concede that there has never been a concerted effort, or a workable plan for all parties' satisfaction, to create the separate nation of Palestine. As opposed to a judicious solution and concrete action various parties in Israel and foreign experts have weighed in with weak advice and little action. Eventually, Palestinians were shuttled into enclaves around the country with neighborhoods that suffered from a compromised life of high unemployment, food shortages and poor health care.
Many years ago there was a conflagration of the twin communities of Sodom and Gomorrah as the bible so attests. After a couple of millennia we have not been successful in locating those cities or found evidence that a conflagration occurred since the story was spun by a priest or prophet who thought it would be a significant lesson to pass on to his flock and future generations. The purpose of the lesson was to warn people that if you consort or tolerate wicked behavior then it follows that you are similarly guilty; guilt by association. There were several interpretations of this story but there was a common theme that if a person were not hospitable to visitors they were seriously guilty. In the day it was a religious necessary to extend hospitality to strangers or visitors. There were violations of this code and there was a tolerance of wicked neighbors so the angles descended and set fire to both communities killing everyone. As a convenience one family did survive so there should be testimony to the conflagration.
The location of this story has not changed since what happened then is happening there now. The location is the same but wickedness has been replaced by politics and the issue of hospitality is out the window. There are of course no avenging angels throwing lighting bolts, and no command by God. What is similar is the 'kill them all' mandate. There is no effort to separate the Hamas terrorists, who had subverted the Palestinian Authority and turned it into a terrorist organization, or those aiding and abetting them from the innocents. This is purely guilt by association since there is no discrimination between between guilt and innocence and it is executed as expeditiously as possible. The indiscriminate bombing has eradicated entire families, the ancestries of survivors have been extinguished (as winter strips the leaves from ancestral trees) the children are killed with their mothers, those surviving are slowly starving, suffering disease or compromised for life by their injuries. Their homes, churches, mosques and businesses no longer exist.
The Israeli government considers this war to be similar to any other world war since it has for the most part implemented wholesale bombing. However there is a different complexion to this war since many of the Palestinians do not favor violence as a solution to the road of independence. Also there are many Israeli (Jewish) citizens who support an independent Palestine. The solution chosen by the government ignores these political divisions and the opinion of Israelis who favor a Palestine. Instead they proceed with total annihilation. This war confirms the Israeli governments' lack of commitment to a serious plan for a separate Palestine. Wholesale bombing is a simple and quick resolution to a problem that was never afforded due consideration. The consequences of this war could be dire for the Israelis in the future. Will the survivors turn to violence?
There are those around the world who will not forget the magnitude of this disaster. It is possible that in the future those who approved and staged this atrocity could be held accountable.
A Very Trumpian Christmas
On Christmas day Pres. Trump delivered an invocation at the Washington National Cathedral. Afterward Pres. Trump took his son Baron to Arlington Cemetery where they paid their respects to Pres. Trump's life long friend of Mexican immigrants PFC Roberto Gonzales. Pres. Trump retold the story of Roberto's bravery in the Korean war. Later in the day, First Lady Melania Trump announced her plans to personally fund a 250 million dollar homeless shelter in Newark NJ. The facility will be complete with a medical center and adult learning center. The same day Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump announced a program to fund the distribution of any future virus vaccine at no cost to seniors and children.
Later that evening the Trump family gathered in the White house as they usually do every Christmas. First Lady Melania and Pres. Trump baked cookies and they watched a movie on the Hallmark channel. They had a sing along of Arlo Guthrie folk songs. Pres. Trump then called Pres. Biden and wished him and his family a very merry Christmas.
Christmas by Vladimir Nabokov
One of my projects this year was to take on the Russians.....meaning the Russian authors. I had read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn as most fellow readers of my youth so consequently one could say this year was a continuation of a project. This year I have chosen the anthologies of short stories by Nabokov, Chekov, Pushkin and Gogol. Of what I have read at this point I was most impressed with a short story by Vladimir Nabokov and not that the other authors were lacking in any major respect. It was only with this short tale that this story stood above the others in style and substance. (albeit the art form has evolved greatly between the time of the other authors and Nabokov's time so it is not entirely a fair comparison)
Sleptsov is the protagonist of this short story. He has returned from the village to his manor and he is reeling from grief since he has attended a funeral. Any room, even the coziest and the most absurdly small, in the little used wing of a great manor house has an unlived-in corner. It was such a corner in which he sat. That evening he fell asleep with nonsensical, fragmented dreams.
In the morning he opened the outside door from that room and walked outside to be met by a sharp frost and snow. He walked down a straight path that had been cleared of snow. He noticed that a dog had left a series of saffron marks on a slope of a snow drift. (clever to characterize dog urine as the color of saffron). He continued and walked along a small bridge and remembered how this bridge looked in the summer. There was his son walking along the slippery planks and deftly plucking off with his net a butterfly that had settled on the railing. Just recently in Petersburg after babbling in his delusion about school, about his bicycle, about some great Oriental moth, he died, and yesterday Sleptsov had taken the coffin--weighted down , it seemed with an entire life time - to the country into the family vault near the village.
After lunch Sleptsov took a sleigh to the cemetery. When he arrived he sat for an hour or so by the grave. He came home with a slight sense of disappointment, as if there, in the burial vault, he had been further removed from his son than here, where the countless summer tracks of his rapid sandals were preserved beneath the snow.
That evening he had the main house unlocked. He went to the room that had been his son's study in the summer. He opened the desk drawer and found note books, a spreading board (to mount butterflies), books, pens and a tin that contained a large exotic cocoon. His son probably reasoned that the chrysalis inside was dead. Sleptsov describes in detail how his son prepared and pinned the moths or butterflies to the spreading board. He mentions a couple of varieties: Aspen Hawk and Swallowtails.
His valet Ivan had placed a small fir tree in a clay pot on the table in the annex and attached a candle to its cruciform tip. Sleptsov returns from the main house carrying a wooden case under his arm. He spies the Christmas tree.
"What's that?"
Ivan answers in low voice: "There's a holiday coming up tomorrow."
"No, take it away," said Sleptsov with a frown, while thinking, Can this be Christmas Eve? How could I have forgotten?
"it's nice and green. Let it stand for awhile." Ivan insisted.
He opened the case that belonged to his son and rummaged through the contents and found a journal. He began to read the entries. "Marvelous hot day, rode my bike in the evening. A midge got in my eye. Deliberately rode by her dacha twice, but didn't see her...." Sleptsov raised his head, swallowed something hot and huge. Of whom was his son writing? He continued to read.
"Rode my bike as usual.....our eyes nearly met. My darling, my love...."
"This is unthinkable," whispered Sleptsov. "'I'll never know. He never said anything to me.'"
"Rain in the evening. She has probably left and we didn't even get acquainted. Farewell my darling. I feel terribly sad..."
Sleptsov tried to remember, rubbing his forehead with his palm. He got up. He shook his head, restraining yet another onrush of hideous sobs.
"I can't bear it any longer," he drawled between groans, repeating even more slowly. "I can't bear---it--any---longer...It's Christmas tomorrow and I'm going to die. Of course. It's so simple. This very night." He pressed his eyes shut and had a fleeting sensation that earthly life lay before him, totally bared and comprehensible and ghastly in its sadness, humiliatingly pointless, sterile, devoid of miracles.
At that instant there was a sudden snap--a thin sound like that of an overstretched rubber band breaking. Sleptsov opened his eyes. The cocoon in the tin had burst at its tip and a black wrinkled creature the size of a mouse was crawling up the wall above the table, It stopped, holding on to the surface with six black furry feet, and started palpating strangely. It had emerged from the chrysalis because a man overcame with grief had transferred a tin box to his warm room, and the warmth had penetrated its taunt leaf-and-silk envelope, it had waited this moment so long, had collected its strength so intensely and now, having broken out, it was slowly and miraculously expanding.....and now they were developed to the limit set for them by God and there on the wall instead of a little lump of life, instead of a dark mouse, was a great Attacus moth like those that fly, birdlike, around lamps in the Indian dusk.
And then those thick black wings, with a glazy eyespot on each and a purplish bloom dusting their hooked fore tips, took a full breath under the impulse of tender, ravishing, almost human happiness.
Comments: The main character expressed himself primarily in speech and thought in the stream of consciousness method. The method serves the rush of emotions throughout the story. The first paragraph set a somber mood followed by suspense. Whose funeral had he attended? Of note is Steptsov's comment that he had settled into an 'unlived- in' corner of the house, an apt place to mourn the deceased and symbolic of an emptiness of his loss. Sleptsov vividly recalled his son's activities on the pathway. He went to the cemetery to visit the grave and he was disappointed that he felt further from his son. He found more comfort with the visualization of his belongings and the tactile experience of touching his effects: a common truism.
When Ivan announced that Christmas was coming we witnessed the change in Sleptsov....his sorrow has turned to anger from his loss. Ivan expressed concern for his master with subtle encouragement about the tree...."let it stand for awhile." As he read his son's journal about his affections for a young girl he became upset since his son had not shared this with him. Why not? Because it was the puppy love of a young boy not to be shared with others. Sleptsov is remorseful that this was kept from him. He was desperate to know everything about his son, every scintilla of his life
To read Nabokov is to stroll through a lush garden of descriptive prose. The composition, while at times slightly florid, sets the mood of the story. The language in the first paragraph is somber and defined the bleak atmosphere. The language in the final sentence of the story is rich with colorful descriptions of the moth that made a human-like breath and took flight. The unexpected and fortunate awakening flight of the moth was serendipitous. It was fortune that the chrysalis was brought from the cold into the warmth. The earlier opinion of Sleptsov of a sterile, pointless, sad, devoid of miracles existence has been changed by the vision of the arisen moth. It was a release from the morose feeling that had consumed him. Although he lost his son he knew that through the miracle of the matured moth there was, in the circle of life, beauty to appreciate.
Within this portrayal of immeasurable loss Nabokov weaved a tale of a magical event; Christmas is magical.
Nabokov referenced and identified several butterflies and moths in his story. The numerous references, subtly or directly, to the insect is understandable since he had a lifelong appreciation of butterflies. Is it possible that he believed that butterflies were a metaphor for freedom or beauty? There wasn't freedom, nothing beautiful, in the Bolshevik Russia that Nabokov had escaped.
Lineage and Civilization
Many years ago Margret Mead, cultural anthropologist, was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. Many people would think she would reference fish hooks or spears or the sling. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur that had been broken and then healed. She explained that in the animal kingdom if an animal breaks a leg they will die. They cannot run from danger and they are meat for beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. The femur that has been healed is evidence that a member of the group has taken the time and effort to attend to the injured member. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts Mead claimed. One can imagine our crusty, hairy Flintstone ancestors dancing around a fire and chanting incantations for the injured while applying some slimy concoction on their wound. They did the best they could with what little knowledge they may have had and they did it with care. They would not want to strike out on a bear hunt absent one member since it is difficult enough with everyone on board. That may have been another reason beyond caring and affection for the wounded.....it was simply practical reasoning. Those who were out of commission had valuable experiences and skills that added to the whole of the tribe. It was best to get them back to health for the benefit of the group. We can have more than one reason to an objective going through our brains. It would be difficult to argue against Mead's proposition since attendance to a wounded member of a group of hunter gatherers exhibits ethical behavior. Although Mead did not use the term ethical, ethical behavior is often referred to as a key element of a civilization.
Is this behavior exhibited only in the human and not in the lower mammals? The chimpanzee attends to a wounded member of their troupe and will lick its wound to aid in healing and a lion will do the same to a wounded member of the pride. A chimp will continue to hold a baby chimp that has been dead for several days. I witnessed evidence of this behavior last year when I watched a wildlife program with a segment featuring the life of a leopard and her cubs. The mother left the cubs hidden in a grassy, rocky knoll while she hunted. Upon her return she immediately noticed that a cub was missing. She sniffed the surrounding area and found a boa constrictor curled under a rock. The snake was swollen since it had swallowed the cub. The mother scratched roughly at the snake's head and the snake regurgitated the dead cub immediately. Snakes will do so in order to escape quickly. The mother licked the cub clean of residue, sniffed it and cuddled the cub in her paws for several minutes. Then she scratched at the soil, laid the cub in a shallow hole, and lay over the grave for the remainder of the day. Was the leopard mourning the loss of her cub? The burial was significant. Perhaps she did not want the cub to be violated by other animals. Several mammals exhibit distress and loneliness (by isolating) which are signs of mourning upon the death of a relation or member of the group. These responses are indicators that these mammals are sentient, although not sapient. It would appear that these characteristics of caring for one another have been passed through evolution to the human.
In conclusion, Margret Mead was not wrong in her assessment of caring for a fellow tribal member as the first evidence of civilization but this behavior appears to have begun millions of years earlier in some lower mammals and through evolution was passed on to humans. Everything before us of the reptiles, birds, fish and mammals have made a major or minor contribution in some manner to the development of the human.
Smashing Pumpkins
It wasn't a particularly small school, It was not a large school either. In a large school a student would often not recognize another student who passed them in the hallway. So it was a midsize school. However, to have three students die and another seriously injured in the span of two to three months was not the norm. For those parents of the dead and injured it was the event that ushered in a journey to darkness.
How does the hour glass reflect the moments? Much of our time is spent with our classmates, teachers and coaches and the remainder is spent at home. In the summer break more time is concerned with home life, perhaps a part time job, and with our classmates and friends in the neighborhood.
It was the last week of October. Halloween week was upon us with cool, breezy weather. The leaves had been spent of their duty and drifted lazily in bright colors to the grass below. Football season had already started and boys were on their yards tossing footballs and imagining to be their favorite players. The youngsters were choosing their costumes, parents were buying bags of treats, and word was spreading about the parents who gave out the best treats. Teenagers, not as interested in the tame custom of demanding candy on fright night, were planning their tricks.
It was very late in the evening when the car careened and skidded on the street and plowed directly into an electrical pole. Charley was killed instantly when his chest was crushed by the steering wheel. David, the passenger, was thrown through the windshield. Someone called an ambulance and David was taken to the local hospital where doctors performed a tracheotomy on him. The sun of the small hours of the morning revealed the cluster of neighbors gathered in their yards and sidewalks after the accident. The event was pieced together late that morning. David had grabbed a pumpkin from the porch of a house and was running down the lawn when the owner of the house had just arrived and drove into the driveway. He had chased David but gave up the chase. David smashed the pumpkin on the street and jumped into the car and the driver sped off. Much further down the street the car hit the electrical pole. The driver had panicked. Could they identify him or the car? As dawn broke everyone in the neighborhood noticed smashed pumpkins in front of their houses and in the streets.
I knew David and Charley. David and I were NY Yankee fans. Seldom did a day go by when the Yankees played that we did not get together and praise the talents of the Bronx Bombers, win or lose. On some occasions, between classes, we would trade cards and compare the talents of the players. Charley was older than I and a year ahead in school so we seldom crossed paths. I do know that he took some teasing from some of the classmates over the foreign car that he drove. It was the only foreign car in the school parking lot. It was only light hearted ribbing.
David lived through the ordeal but it was a limited life. He never returned to school since he was mentally impaired. I visited with him a few weeks after the accident and I came away from the visit having felt as though another soul had slipped into his skin. The usual smile had turned to a blank stare and he spoke robotically. I did not see him again until ten years later. I had returned to town to visit with my grandparents. I had met, by chance, a former neighbor who knew Charley. In our conversation he mentioned that David was working at a clothing store. Working? That was encouraging . It was a clothing store that we frequented in our school days. I drove to the store and walked down an aisle and there he was in the next aisle and I stared at him for a moment and then walked over to him. My eyes went directly to the indentation in his throat from the tracheotomy. I extended my hand and he took my hand and said, "Yankees." We both laughed. I couldn't speak for a moment. I felt pity and at the same moment I felt happy for him. Someone had found a place for him. He had something to do. There had always been a salesperson in that store and they had added David to assist the salesperson and keep the apparel properly sorted. We chatted for a few minutes about the school days and he brought me up to date on the news of some of our former classmates. As I left the store he said, "Go Yankees." He was different now but still we connected as though we did before the accident.
It happen in October also. It was the death of Larry. He had gone hunting with his .22 single action rifle one Saturday in the deep forest behind his house. It grew late and his father went to search for him. He found his body. It was ruled an accident, but several of us suspected it was a suicide. He was always the boy standing outside our circle. He laughed at the wrong things, he set the record for fighting in school, he contradicted his teachers constantly, and he talked about war incessantly. Still, though swimming against the current and disliked by most, he was one of us. Couldn't we have made the effort to connect with him since he was one of us?
It was an unusually hot, late August day when Paul left us. It happened at the Cabana Club. The pool was crowded since it was the last of summer break and everyone was anxious to taste the last morsel of freedom of summer break. Paul announced to someone that he was going into the pool to test his endurance. How long could he hold his breath under the water. Something went awry. After several minutes someone noticed the body floating lifeless just below the surface. His lungs ruptured(an embolism?). He was DOA at the hospital. A link had been broken in the chain of friends and classmates. One of us had left the circle. A door slammed shut in our faces and on the other side of the door was the soul of a jovial teenager.
it continued to be the object of curiosity and fear although it happened the year before. It was the strangulation of University student Betty Gail Brown whose body was found early one morning. It happened at the edge of the campus of Transylvania University which lay at the center of our town. There were no suspects. Was a strangler still on the loose in our town? Mothers and fathers limited the activities of their daughters.
The tragedies seemed unusual for a town of sixty-thousand. All except the murder were in close succession. Though the murder was much earlier in the year the fear was still in the community since there were no suspects. The atmosphere in the school was more subdued in the first week after the death of Paul, but gradually school life returned to normal. Then we faced the death of Charley, Larry and the injury to David and then we returned to the same dark place.
We may have become more cognizant of a future that lay ahead. Beyond our innocent existence of these school days exists a world where dues are collected without consideration of your wants, where beauty must be appreciated at every available moment, and the only motion that makes sense is forward.