Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Good People

The bad learn from the good, not honoring their teachers.

Lao-Tzu
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I have been influenced over the years by many great writers, painters and composers, and I often mention their names. But there have been others, people I have known personally, who have inspired me, in one way or another, to seek and find the good in my career and my life. No doubt I have not honored them as much as I should have. Many of them are gone now and can't be contacted. But all can be honored here.

The people I need to thank for teaching me about good.

Marston Balch
Dick Barnet
Henry Bate
Linda Bate
Mr. Bush
(high school English teacher, I have ruefully forgotten his first name)
Erwin Canham
Tom Clancy
Gregory D'Alessio
Thomas Fogarty
Marshall Glazier
Frank Hansen
Roy Irving
Norman Mailer
Duncan Pirnie
Lawrence Sherman
Edward Thoman
Bill Watson
Earl Wild
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Thank you folks, I honor you.

Dana Bate
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Monday, November 29, 2010

The Race Is On

A runner must run with dreams in his heart.

Emil Zatopec



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I did some running in school but soon realized it was not the sport for me. Soon after each race began the pain set it and I realized it was an contest against pain, among other things. So I stopped. But I still admire watching good runners and can appreciate what they are doing to some degree.

The first famous runner of history was Pheidippides. The legend says that he ran from the battlefield where the very outnumbered Athenian army had just won the battle at Marathon against the Persians under King Darius. That story is probably not true, but the historian Herodotus wrote that Pheidippides did run 145 miles to plead with the Spartans to send help to the Athenians. At the end of the run he supposedly died from exhaustion. Not surprising. The Spartans did not send any help to the Athenians in spite of the hope Pheidippides carried in his heart. But the Athenians won the battle anyway.

Emil Zatopec, who is quoted above, was a gold medal winning runner from Czechoslovakia. One notable achievement of his was entering in to a marathon at the last minute, even though he had never run one before, and winning it.

Zatopec said of the start of his career, "I had to run, and when I got started, I felt I wanted to win. But I only came in second. That was the way it started."

Roger Bannister, now SIR Rager Bannister want to be a doctor. He started running as child, to and from school. He went on the astonish the world by running the mile in under 4 minutes, in spite of the myths spread that said it couldn't be done. Sir Roger said, "The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."

The most recent history making runner is Edison Pena who with 32 other Chilean miners spend 69 days trapped under the ground. Not knowing for sure if they would ever get out alive, edison ran every day. He ran back and forth in that mine shaft. they were all eventually saved and Edison was invited to come to New York to watch the NYC Marathon. But Mr. Pena wanted to run instead so he did. Even though he had to stop for medical attention, he went back out and finished the race with ice taped around his knee. His time was 5 hours and 40 minutes.

Edison Pena said, "When I ran in the darkness, I was running for life. "I was running to show that I wasn't just waiting around. I was saying to that mine, 'I can outrun you. I'm going to run until you're just tired and bored of me.'"

We are all runners in this human race, and we must keep the dreams alive.

DB - The Vagabond

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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Sunday, November 28, 2010

I'm Abnormal

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

Frank Zappa
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One of the saddest of things to me is to know of people who have been disappointed in life, who have to give up on things they had hoped for. To have one's heart and mind set on something, on some good goal, a blessing, an achievement, and have to give it up, is tragic. It happens to all of us to one degree or another.

One of the frequent reasons for its happening is that we plan to do things the way we are supposed to. We are usually too young to know ourselves sufficiently to accommodate changes and unexpected events which define us differently from the life, personality and character we have given ourselves.

The people in my family and my friends' families tried to live very doctrinaire, orthodox lives. They did the things and thought the things they were "supposed to." I didn't, and as a result I was being called "abnormal." It took me many years to get over the idea that my abnormality was a curse of some kind, that I needed to have my "head examined."

I knew a man who, while still young, was a successful artist out west. He married and came east expecting to establish himself here in his field. But he and his wife soon started having children he had to feed and clothe. So he gave up his dreams and put himself into a higher paying position in which he was also successful. I met him again years later and found that he was remorseful at not having had the life he dreamed about for himself.

I took a lesson, partly from him, partly from others I knew who were suffering the same sadness and from myself when I got enough influence from writers and other artists to accept my abnormalities and move on with life. The results I have suffered as a result have all been bearable.

I've observed from my life in theatre how easy it is for some people to fall into the trench of sameness, of doing things the way you are supposed to do them. On the other hand I've also seen to my great joy other people who have been welcome deviates, those who have eschewed the proper way of doing things and broken down confining walls in the process.

You can always tell when someone has turned his back on the norm, branched out into the world of imagination and progressed into a saner place by the imitators he gets. But those imitators have simply taken the inovations and made them the norm, "the way to do things." Thus progress is made.

Thank heaven there are always going to be people who are willing to be abnormal, to be deviates and to show the world a better way to go.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Watch The Sword

Year by year, the Congress and the Senate must become of less account before all decent men.

Charles Dickens
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There is a sword hanging over America's head and it was put there by the Founding Fathers. Most of those who freely refer to those men have no bedrock idea who they were. Someone should write a book, if it hasn't already been written, about what happened to those men who signed the Declaration of Independence. How many lost their property, how many lost their families, how many were tortured by the British, how many were killed.

To stand up against the most powerful nation in the Western World took unimaginable courage and faith, what Schopenhauer called "reckless optimism." If we had lost the War of Independence George Washington would have been tortured and hung on the street in London, and he knew it.

And why did they do it, that disparate crowd of men who frequently disagreed with each other but who came to agree about what they had to do, to make a nation, a new land, a land of the free and courageous, a beacon to the world that personal rights and self government were achievable ideas. And along with that commitment came a challenge sent to the future, sent to us, from the hearts of men who risked everything.

When Charles Dickens visited America he observed American institutions and our way of life and found how much it had degenerated even in 100 years. Slavery was everywhere, rudeness, hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, all things he didn't expect of find. He wrote "Year by year, the memories of the Great Fathers of the Revolution must be outraged more and more, by the bad life of their degenerate child."

The current state of politics in this country is a betrayal of the gifts of those original thinking men and women. The avowed agendas of the recently elected members of Congress are a disgrace. Other nations are saying without equivocating that they don't want us in their lands. Worn out useless contracts are being brought out for acceptance by people who have not learned the ways of good government. Our future as a world leader and beacon is uncertain. Politicking has become a macabre joke, third rate entertainment. There are "decent men," intelligent adults in this country, somewhere. The sword doesn't need to fall. But it's hanging there.

DB
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Friday, November 26, 2010

Owning Yourself

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to yourself.

Michel de Montaigne
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Imagine if you woke up one morning and found a bucket of worms and two fishing poles in your kitchen that weren't there when you went to bed, and no one in your home fishes. Or imagine that some friend has convinced you that you really must go out and take a course in disco dancing even though you've never had an interest in it. Or what if you suddenly decided to have a career as a scuba diver even though you've never done it. Crazy, you say? Yes, but things just as crazy happen to us all the time.

One day I went into a shoe store in Manhattan to buy a pair of shoes. The salesman measured my foot and brought out two boxes of shoes to try them on. Both of the pairs had tassels on them. I asked if I could see some shoes without tassels, but he wouldn't show me any. He said the tassels were in style and I wouldn't look right if I didn't have them.

Now I have nothing against tassels, on shoes or anywhere, so I stared at those shoes trying to imagine myself wearing them. It was a moment of self discovery. I finally left without making a purchase. I don't know everything about myself but one thing I know for sure is that I am not a man who wears tassels on his shoes.

On day years ago my girl friend brought home a squid from the supermrket. Neither one of us knew how to cook a squid. I looked in The Joy Of Cooking but the directions were very complicated and the fact was we really didn't like squid. I don't know what possessed her to buy it but it sat in the refrigerator taking up space until we finally threw it out.

While in California I applied for a job as manager of a large Hollywood movie theatre, the kind of place that premiers new films. I could no more have done that job than fly to the moon. I don't know what urged me to apply for it but I'm grateful I wasn't hired.

Now, instead of fishing poles, squid and tasseled shoes, apply the same searchlight internally and find how many ideas, opinions, certainties, facts, convictions, patterns of speech and quirks of behavior you have that aren't really yours. Why do we pick things up from various sources and make them, or try to make them, our own? It's amazing how much we are influenced by things, most of which in the clear light of our reason make no sense at all. They wear us like tassels attached to us. They become unnecessary parts of our lives like fishing poles in the kitchen or squid in the refrigerator. If we don't reject them immediately they become part of us, taking up space in our lives, in our minds. Eventually we find out how useless they are and we have to throw them out.

The healthy, but often difficult, thing to do is to take inventory of ourselves, to face those moments of self discovery, to determine what possesses us that isn't true to us. It may be impossible to track some things down to their origin but to uncover them enables us to weigh their value and discard what is really useless or interfering with our harmony and reality.

Who owns the title to you? Who has the deed? And how much of you doesn't belong to you?

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Join The Parade

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

John Barth
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It's Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. This is the day families get together and enjoy or don't enjoy each other's company. It's a feasting day, the celebration of the harvest. It's also the day of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you aren't there you may be watching it right now on television instead of reading my purple prose.

Freddy Fender was born Baldemar Garza Huerta in 1937. He was a Mexican American, born in Texas. In his younger years he played guitar and sand songs in both English and Spanish. He specialized in folk, rock and Trejano, which is a mixture of Louisiana folk music and Mexican Mariachi. He played and sang in bars and honky tonks all around the South. He took there name Fender from his guitar, and thought the name Freddy went well with it.

The Thanksgiving parade begins way up on the upper West Side of Manhattan and moves down Broadway to lower Manhattan. Marching bands from all around the country come to be in the parade. There are big balloons and floats.

For part of his career Freddy was in a group known as the "Texas Tornano." He once described the group by saying "You've heard of the New Kids on the Block? well we're the Old Guys on the Street."

The parade is known for its huge balloons of comic book characters. It's a great delight to children and adults to see Mickey Mouse as tall as a building drifting down Broadway with a big smile and an arm that waves. But those balloons often get tangled up in the wires and tree limbs. When that happens the parade comes to a halt for 10 minutes or so until the handlers get the balloon loose.

Fender was a charismatic entertainer and as a soloist he sang and recorded some songs that won him Emmys. One of them was "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights." But his most famous song was "Before The Next Tear Drop Falls." It was the big country hit of the year.

One year I saw the parade from the west side of Times Square. It was a cold and rainy day. There was no one else on the block where I was because there was no shelter except one small awning I was standing under. There was a group of people way off on the other side of Times Square under the marquees of the movie theatres, out of the rain.

The theme of the parade that day was country music. There were the usual balloons and marching bands, and then there was a big float with the sound of a woman's voice singing a country tune. It was Dolly Parton herself, under a canopy of flowers, safe from the rain and surrounded by beautiful girls all with hoop skirts and bouquets. The float went along, made the transition across 7th Avenue and disappeared down Broadway.

Freddy eventually achieved a lot of success, made some films and some TV appearances, was featured on Austin City Limits, won many awards and set up some scholarship funds for other Mexican American kids.

After Dolly Parton and her girls passed there was another big balloon and more marching bands. Then I looked up Bradway and saw a large wooden horse on one of the floats. As it came into view I could see sitting on the horse, way above the street level, was Freddy Fender. And, of course, just as it got to me the parade stopped.

He was dressed for the part including a cowboy hat and boots. But it was raining. Behind him was a marching band, stomping in puddles as they marched in place and played their band music. Freddy looked around and saw me. He waved. I waved back. There was no one else around. He waved at the people on the other side of the square but they were too far away to make eye contact. So he waved at me again. And I waved back. He took his hat and waved that. I was holding my rain coat close around my neck because of the cold, but I let go to wave.

This occasional waving back and forth went on for about 10 minutes before the parade moved again and he went on his way. He was perched up on the big horse from which he couldn't dismount, exposed to the rain and cold and I was huddled in a doorway. There he was stuck in the middle of Times Square in the rain and probably wondering what the hell he was doing there. I could have moved in out of the rain, but even though I wasn't particularly a fan of his, I was his only fan in that place at that time.

He was going to sit there proudly and heroically until the last raindrop fell and I was not going to leave him.

Before he died he wanted to be the first Mexican American inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't think it happened.

DB - The Vagabond
May everybody have a festive day wherever you are
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

It Takes A Nut

It helps to think about peanut butter when you need moral strength.

William F. Buckley
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I remember peanut butter. Peanut butter has a special place in my heart at Thanksgiving. As I wrote once or twice I faced a Thanksgiving Day with a broken can opener and a stove and oven that didn't work. Peanut butter was my Thanksgiving dinner and I was grateful for it.

I mention it now because I'm not going to visit that story again tomorrow. Instead I'm going to write about me and Freddy Fender. But that's tomorrow.

What does peanut butter have to do with moral strength you ask? Well so did I, and here are what my musings have discovered.

The peanut. A simple, lowly, humble crop has been important to the world for a long time. Records go back to the Incas in 950 BCE using peanuts in one form or another. The Chinese have been making a paste out of it for centuries. In Africa they've been making use of it in a similar fashion since the 15th Century.

In America the Kellogg company was marketing a form of peanut butter but left it to get into the cereal bossiness. In 1955 Procter & Gmble got into the act and now produce most of the peanut butter we know. One of our former Presidents, Jimmy Carter, was originally a peanut farmer.

But the most famous name connected to the peanut is George Washington Carver. Carver was born into slavery in Missouri around 1854, no one knows for sure when. He took the name Carver from Moses Carver the man who owned him. After emancipation Moses brought George up as his own son.

As an adult, even though he was surrounded by racial hatred and the firm conviction that black people were intellectually inferior, and his huge struggle to get an education in spite of it, he went on to become a poet, a painter and a scientist.

George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter, in spite of what they still teach in some schools, that had already been done. But as a botanist Carver developed about 300 uses for the peanut.

So tomorrow, when I have my traditional Thanksgiving Day peanut butter , I will think about the moral strength of George Washington Carver, the slave who became America's leading authority on peanuts and all the other fine and humble people who invented my sandwich.

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Visions Of The Night

Always know where the back door is.

Bate
*************
Today I read an article about a 7 year old girl who was frightened by a picture of the angle of death she had seen in school. It frightened her so much she couldn't sleep at night. As soon as the lights went out she saw the image again and for several knights she would leave her room and get into bed with her mother.

The mother is a writer and one day suggested to the girl tht she imagine herself to be powerful and had powerful friends around her to do battle with the angel of death and end up putting a funny bright red wig on it. That worked and the girl was never frightened with that image again.

The little girl's imagination took care of the monster.

Two nights ago I had a nightmare. I was standing ina room with a group of men. the room was packed with us. There was no room to move, we were jammed in solid, shoulder to chest, back to front. No one could move. There were no windows, the room was stuffy, the only way out was a door that was locked. I don't like closed spaces anyway. I would rather take a train than to fly. I hate tight confined spaces. I panicked and woke up.

I carried the fear of that dream with me all day. Yesterday evening I tried to imagine what I would do if that event actually occurred. In my imagination I hollered out to ask if anyone could pick a lock. One man said he could but he wasn't near the door. Struggling for a long time through this crowd of men he finally reached the door and opened it. There were too many men to make a panicked run, a stampede. There was a lot pf pushing and shoving but eventually we all got out. It was a great relief. That night I slept peacefully. The only truth to the whole thing was my fear. The event never happened.

My imagination took care of the monster.

DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Monday, November 22, 2010

A Young Man

You're never too old to become younger.

Mae West
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"I can't do some of the things old folks do any more. I'm not as old as I used to be." Bate

I knew an actor years ago, we were about the same age, who, when we reached our 30's began to talk about all the things that were going to go wrong with our bodies. Soon this was going to fall apart and that was going to go and we would start having trouble with the other thing. He was literally talking his way into old age and trying to take me with him. I was determined to reject his appraisal of growing older. But I guess some of it rubbed off on me because when I was 35 another actor friend said I reminded him of a old fogy.

That remark made me sit up and take inventory of myself. I wasn't an old fogy, I was just acting like one. So I improved my mentality and began to think of myself as young.

When I was in my early 50's I accidentally ran into the first actor in a restaurant in New York. I felt in my prime and looked it. He looked terrible and old. My friends asked me who the old man was. I had to admit, sadly, that we were the same age.

I learned how much an attitude can affect a result. The actor had been forced to give up his career at an early age and carry around with him a double yoke of infirmity and decrepitude. While I had pulled myself out of that pit by rejecting those suggestions he fell more deeply into it.

Now, 20 years later, I have found myself in the same joyful rejection. It's not that I don't have the problems that confront age, it's that I reject the idea that I have to succumb to them and allow them the prerogative of defining me as a miserable old wreck.

Oh, I almost went for it. An option to relax into uselessness presented itself with a smile and an handshake. I almost agreed with the diagnosis my thoughts were giving me. But I didn't need a friend to tell me I was an old fogy. I had learned the lesson.

Ten years ago I worked with an actor who was well into his 80's and going strong. Those are the people I want to emulate now. He had a bad knee which was eventually replaced, but he had a joyous and energetic attitude, and after the knee replacement he went on working.

So I'm a senior citizen, a coot, a geezer, a curmudgeonly bag of bones, but I'm no fogy and I'm not as old as I used to be.

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Weekend Contest Answer

WEEKEND CONTEST ANSWER

You are to finish the following sentence by filling in the blank spaces with whatever words you choose.

Once I had ___________ and I _____________ but ________which was too bad, but _____________ any way, and _________________ at last.

There is one winner, Linda Socha, of the Blogspot tigers who wrote:

Once I had soul music and I sang my heart's song but lost it which was too bad, but I sang any way, and so felt it again today at last.

Good one Linda.

DB
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Standing Up To The Man

To really enjoy the better things in life, you must have experienced the things they are better than.

Oskar Holmolka
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One day I was having a bite to eat at my local restaurant in New York City. I was by myself. A family of four came in and took a table. After they had ordered, one of the men started talking about New York in very uncomplimentary terms. They were obviously tourists from some place out west.

The man started railing about the city: the crowds, the dirt, the noise, the subway system, the cab drivers, and the food. He began to suggest that New York should be dumped by the rest of the country and fend for itself if it couldn't "clean up it's act."

Then he made jokes about it like who wants to live in a place where you never see the sun because the buildings are in the way. He made some remarks about dirty immigrants.

I was getting very annoyed but I wasn't going to say anything. However, there was a man dressed in work clothes sitting at the counter having his supper. He had his back to them and when he heard the remark about immigrants he turned around pointed his finger at the scoffer and said, in a foreign accent which sounded Eastern European, "You. You don't know what you're talking about."

He went on to say that he was from Europe, that he lived in places where he and other people couldn't work or find a place to live because they didn't have the right papers, or the right name, or the right language. Or they didn't belong to the right political party.

He said he fought in the war for the Hungarian army and when he got out he joined the French army. He said he had seen cities all over Europe, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Paris. Genoa, Rome. He said "This is the greatest city in the world." He said here he can work and be free. He went on to say that he hoped the man would go home soon and not come back. Then he returned to his meal. There was no further discussion about New York City.

Oskar Homolka was an Austrian actor with a long and varied career in Austria, Germany, London and the United States, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in "I Remember Mama."

He and his wife fled Germany when the Nazi's came to power.

Homolka could have been that man in the restaurant who stood up for New York. He certainly experienced things that his life was better than.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

You are to finish the following sentence by filling in the blank spaces with whatever words you choose.

Once I had ___________ and I _____________ but ________which was too bad, but _____________ any way, and _________________ at last.

The best sentence wins a prize. The decision of the brain challenged judge is final.

Good Luck
DB
********

Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Story Teller

Children often grow up to be what they thought they were as children.

Jesse Kornbluth
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Roughing it through the days and nights of life there are many trails and detours, dead ends and surprising destinations. Alone against the wind as we all are we have to call upon some fundamental strength and know how. Getting through life is no easy task but millions of people have done it so it happens to be not only a possibility but also an obligation. The foremost duty, of course, is too oneself. It may not be possible to fulfill all the promises of one's childhood, but it usually means that some of the lesser important things must pass into the scrap book of good intentions.

The temptations of life dangle in front of our faces most of the time. And what do we make of them? We may make choices. After careful thought, analysis and hopefully some good guidance, we decide on a plan of action and go staggering forward into some kind of future. But a certain time must come when we finally realize that what we've been doing while we filled up a resume of activities to impress a boss or a family reduces down to a being we always were.

When I was a child we lived near a park. Kids played ball there. Mothers walked their babies, men walked their dogs. In one area of the park there was a wild place with bushes and a small pond. I liked to sit there and dream about things. One day a neighbor boy brought over a strange fern-like thing he had picked somewhere. He showed it to me and asked me if I knew what it was. I didn't know but I pretended I did and made up an identity for it. I even gave it some magical powers. I finally had to tell him I was making it up because he started to believe me. After that he brought his friends and they had me invent stories about twigs, bottles and whatever they could find.

It seemed obvious to some that I was going to be an actor because my family had been in show business. But I had to wade through a morass of alternatives and promises until one day I woke up and realized that acting was what people expected of me and what some of them were paying me to do. So I spent the next 50 years on the stage telling other people's stories. Now I'm retired and I write my own. Bring me a fern and I'll tell you all about it.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

You are to finish the following sentence by filling in the blank spaces with whatever words you choose.

Once I had ___________ and I _____________ but ________which was too bad, but _____________ any way, and _________________ at last.

The best sentence wins a prize. The decision of the brain challenged judge is final.

Good Luck
DB
*******************

Friday, November 19, 2010

Living Alone

'Tis better to be alone than in bad company.

President George Washington
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Oh Jonah he lived in de whale
Oh Jonah he lived in de whale
For he made his home in dat fish's abdomen
Oh Jonah he lived in de whale
(Ira Gershwin)

Since I retired, 9 years ago, I've been living by myself. I'm not completely antisocial, I'm not a hermit. I occasionally see folks and have a brief chat. But basically I'm alone. And it's good for me.

I don't preach aloneness as a way of life for everyone, but it has been a boon for me . I have been in bad company in my time. Usually it was because I was lonely and went out looking for companionship. I found it, of course, but it wasn't always the best kind. I realized that soon enough and tried to ignore the behavior of people around me. When I couldn't do that I just withdrew back into myself, licked my wounds and prided myself for not being like other men. It is easy to find faults and criticize when it comes to other people.

But since being a loner I've had a lot of time to spend thinking about my past relationships and realizing I have a bucket full of forgiving to do. I had an obligation to myself and to others to refrain from my criticism, treat people with respect and not expect them to be what they aren't. I overlooked that obligation. I'm sorry. But as the hours and days of my solitariness slip by I am changing my ways and my attitudes about other people.

Most people know the story of Jonah and the whale. But how many people know how he got into that fix in the first place? He was fleeing from an obligation. He didn't want to face a nasty task of warning people about a possible destruction of their city. He was sure no one would believe him, and if it didn't happen he would look like a fool. So he sailed away on the next ship.

He would have gotten away with it but a terrible storm came up, the frightened sailors threw him overboard, and that's when he met the whale.

He spent three days living "in dat fish's abdomen" and when indigestion finally cause the whale to burp him up on the shore Jonah was a changed man. Was it splashing around in sea water or fighting off the whales digestive juices that changed him? No. It was finally being by himself and facing his circumstances, his arrogance and his failure to fulfill his obligation. So he returned to the city, warned the people, who did believe him, they took the necessary actions and saved themselves.

Surviving three days in "the belly of the beast" is a drastic way to learn one's lessons. It shouldn't happen to anyone. For me it's been nine years in my solitary sanctorum, alone, sometimes lonely, but always learning. If life ever burps me up on the shore I will be a different man.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Where Am I Going?

Try early in life to find an unobtainable objective.

George Wald
*****************
Every day I make a list of all the things I want to do tomorrow. Included on the list is making a list for the next day. Some of the things on my list for today are simple things, like trimming my fingernails and cleaning the kitchen counter. Among the more serious and complicated things is writing my journal for the next day, which I am doing right now.

My life was not caotic and undisciplined before I started making lists. It was merely that I would become so involved with what I was doing I would forget about other important things. So now they're on the list (if I remember to put them there, that is). The problem with the list is that now I feel as if I have all these obligations. I never accomplish everything on the list so they get moved over to the next day. It isn't that I feel guilty about it. It's more a matter of feeling that I have to be busy all the time. A polite but insistent imp in my conscience is saying "What are you doing now?" If the answer is "I'm waiting for the coffee water to boil" then the little devil asks if I should find some small task to do in the meantime, wash a dish, trim my moustache. If I prefer to sit and think about something, why should I feel guilty?

I have come to believe and appreciate two important things. One is that thinking is what a challenged and treacherous life is all about. "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much, such man are dangerous>" Shakespeare. Yes, I am dangerous. I think "too much." I am armed and dangerous. Armed with ideas and observations that upset the mental apple carts, my own and others.

Also in my bag of beliefs is the view that the journey of life is an endless one because the destination is never reached. I did a play in which one character spoke about working many years and saving up money to buy a house, then when you buy the house and move into it where are you? That existential question was never answered by the playwright.

If you take the A Train going south from Manhattan you can eventually reach Far Rockaway, one of the distant out posts of New York City. But if you get off at the last stop and walk east a couple of blocks you will be in the town of Inwood, New York. It's in Nassau County, not part of New York City.

Being a northeasterner I am used to towns and villages abutting each other, even across state lines. When I hitchhiked to California in 1960 I was astonished at how far I had to go to reach the next town. Once past the big river everything stretched out to pasture, farmland, desert and open spaces. When evening came and I was walking I would yearn to see lights ahead, hoping for a diner, a truck stop or any sliver of civilization. I had a very clear sense of destination. Just get somewhere.

As I think (too much) about these things I wonder if there is ever any real destination at all. Life is unfinished business, another task to do, another meal to be prepared, another day to plan, another visit, another thing to learn, another discovery, another realization, another destination on the long walk. If we finally get to heaven we will probably have things to do, lists to make, places to go and things to think about. I hope so.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Getting It Wrong

Without mistakes there is no forgiving, without forgiving there is no love.

Mother Teresa
**************
We are all crazy. There is no doubt abut that. Next winter go out and throw a snowball into a crowd of people and it is certain to hit someone who is being irrational about something. The sanest one among us is secretly a dope. a secret most carefully hidden from himself

Whenever I do something that makes no sense, even though it seemed to be the best and most intelligent thing at the time, I wonder where my brain is, if it just took a little vacation while my back was turned. If you haven't made a mistake you haven't lived yet.

There was a man I worked for, briefly, who was a state-of-the-art paranoid ignoramus. Every time one of his workers did something wrong, no matter how small it was, he would demand to know why the person did it. If the employee said "I made a mistake," the boss would ask him why he made a mistake, as if he had done it on purpose. The boss simply had an empty place in his head where his reason was supposed to be.

I am very grateful I haven't been kicked in the shins by some supervisor over some of the dumb things I've done. I have been forgiven for things I would never perhaps forgive myself for. No, I won't cite you any examples, I don't want to think about them.

The point is I was forgiven. After a few times of being astonished by someone's forgiveness of me I turned the coin over and saw that I, myself, was learning forgiveness and that I could easily forgive other people for their mistakes. Once I discovered that secret, life got a little brighter. We all make mistakes. Why not forgive other people for theirs?

Sometimes the mistakes are big ones, people get hurt or property is destroyed. Then the act of forgiveness becomes a major effort, but the condition of not staying angry, resentful or hateful, of forgiving, is a double blessing.

But what about people who have purposely done something to hurt? I have forgiven the nasty critics. I have forgiven people who lied to me, people who lied about me and those who believed them. I have even forgiven some who were purposely malignant, hurtful and harmful to me and caused me pain and sorrow. Those people were mistaken about me.

Forgiveness isn't easy, no body ever said it was, and sometimes it seems impossible. But wherever there is animosity in your heart, there is no love.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Jacques And Job

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville
****************
Years ago I played Jules in a production of "My Three Angels" in Florida. During the show I had to carry a live chicken across the stage. The hen was big and heavy but she was no trouble. She flapped her wings on cue. The only problem was with her name.

The crew person who handled her backstage kept referring to her as "Henrietta" and that's how she would be listed in the program. I objected. Every chicken who has ever appeared on a stage has been called HEN rietta. Couldn't people, for once, come up with a real name and not try to be cute. No. Henrietta she remained. I don't think she cared, but I did.

Another time I did a play in New England which was based on a short story that had been made into a famous film. The director wanted us to do the play exactly the way they did it in the film. He even hired actors who looked the same as those in the film. He would not listen to any alternative reading of a line or interpretation of the script. We were to reproduce the film on the stage. How boring.

I've known directors who have come straight out of a Drama Department somewhere who then try to produce a play just the way it was done back in school. How boring! How stupid!!

I have seen actors who try a Rex Harrison hair cut or Marlo Brando speech because they saw it in a movie. This sort of nonsense doesn't stop at the stage door.

Some thinker comes up with a theory about something. It sounds good. So people accept it as fact and then base their words and actions on it without ever challenging the basic premise. That can go on for decades, even centuries. How many different ways can one explain the theology that comes out of most seminaries? When you come right down to it the question "What's new?" has no answer.

Jacques Bolduc was a theologian who lived in the 16th - 17th Century in France. He was a Capuchin friar and a Hebrew scholar. After many years of research and study he published an account of the book of Job in which he claimed Job was the first book written, possibly by Job himself or one of his friends and possibly discovered by Moses and rewritten. He also put forth the idea that Judaism and hence Christianity are based on Natural Law and the 7 precepts of Noah's sons (Genesis 9).

Bolduc was basically ignored. But when he wasn't there were scathing criticisms of his books. Other theologians called them heretical, absurd, preposterous and sacrilegious. Why? Because they didn't conform to the traditional teaching of the church. Even today there is hardly any notice of Bolduc in modern theological study, and yet some are beginning to think that Job did predate Moses, though they don't give Bolduc credit for first thinking so.

He wasn't completely ignored however. Among the few who listened to him was Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, who used Job's term "Leviathan" as the title of his most important work, which then troubled the theological waters, like the healing angel of Bethesda, and began a world wide discussion of what that name Leviathan really means.

Look closely. The smiling parson with his arms outstretched in beneficial holiness may be preaching nonsense and not know it. But if so, be assured the nonsense doesn't stop at the last pew.

In science, education, economics, politics, sports and any major endeavor are those who hold on to the "tried and true" and don't listen to a different reading of it. It's easy to believe you're right when no one disagrees with you. It's hard to believe you're right when everyone disagrees with you But those who have the courage to step away from imitation, to practice original thinking and to stand tall and sturdy when the storm of mindless disagreement pelts and blows, just might be on to something.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Monday, November 15, 2010

Think Of Nothing

Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Kurt Vonnegut
*****************
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." Shakespeare. Most of the people in the world practice idolatry. Surely not I? Yes, you.

If I say "ball" something globular comes to your mind. Is it a floating bubble, a baseball or the moon? And if I say "truth" now what? It may mean to you that which is not a lie, or it may mean reality or actuality. Or it may mean to some the fundamental and all encompassing state of existence. In fact it means none of those things. "Truth" simply means Truth. It's a term we have to identify something which is otherwise inexpressible. A good dictionary will devote a large section to the word and yet we toss it around as if it was a ball. "Tell the truth." "Be truthful." "Be true to yourself." "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" That oath has nothing to do with truth. It's about facts. A fact is a very small thing measured against the universal dimensions of truth. Even so truth still remains a term, a title, a concept.

As soon as we reduce something to a concept, ball, rose, truth, the universe, we limit it and force it back to the center, to the garden variety of ideas. It isn't anything. It merely stands for something and the something has no word. We may turn around in circles and say the word ball stand for something that looks like a ball.

The word "God" is not God. It is a term we have to describe something that has no words to describe it. And yet some people worship the name. "Oh God, hear my prayer." They are praying to a word. That's idolatry.

To be out on the edge is to be at a place where there are no words, where concepts are left behind and where thinking is free to see and understand the unnamable. The great philosophers and theologians of history talk about enlightenment (for want of a better word) but even that is a concept, an idea whose real meaning is unknown even to the enlightened, because the enlightened have left the world of words.

When, by accident or inspiration, people approach the edge where terminology stops, they turn and run back to the center where they feel safe with the concepts in the garden. Those who stay at the edge can bring back the sights of unexplainable wisdom. But a few unknowns have had the courage to step off, supported by light and unmindful of the world they left behind.

DB
***************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Weekend Puzzle Answer

A man goes out gambling one day. He goes to the first casino and pays $4 entrance fee.. While there he doubles his money and pays $4 to leave.

He goes to a second casino which charges him $4 to enter. He doubles his money and then pays another $4 to get out.

At the third casino he pays the $4 to enter. While in there he doubles his money and again pays $4 to exit.

Feeling good he enters a fourth casino, pays the $4 entry fee and doubles his money. After he pays the $4 to leave that casino he has no money left. He's broke.

How much money did he have to begin with, before he entered the first casino?

And the answer is $11.25. There are two winners, Val and Lori, both fo the Blogspot Tigers. Here is Val's figuring.

$11.25

1. 11.25... 7.25... 14.50... 10.50
2. 10.50... 6.50... 13.00... 9.00
3. 9.00... 5.00... 10.00... 6.00
4. 6.00... 2.00... 4.00.. 4.00

Nice going ladies. You both win the grand prize of a box of chalk and a blackboard.

DB
*****************

Grab The Net

What my tongue does not, that my heart shall say.

Shakespeare
********************
2:30 in the morning. There is no traffic outside. There are no sounds in the building, My housemates are either asleep or away. On the CD player is music that was recorded many years ago and is now in my collection. I make myself a cup of tea. The street lamp is lit outside my apartment. Those things are my only proof of civilization.

I feel like the only person in the universe. NASA has put me on a spacecraft to a distant planet and now I live in total isolation with but the artifacts of existence around me. I know I am alive, And that is my only proof of life.

But this is the time when I read other people's journals. I know most everyone but my European and Asian friends are asleep. And if I write a comment it will probably not be read until I'm asleep. But the friends and fellow citizens of the world that I have come to know over the Internet are the source of continuity and grace for a solitary, lonely space traveler, living by himself on his own planet.

I have learned the bitter way not to gush with excessive gratitude over things, because sometimes they disappear. But a silent thank you must go out to the people who read me and write me and who are glad to hear from me when I write to them. I could name names but I would, no doubt, leave someone out accidentally. I just think it is important from time to time to stop and reflect on the fact of invisible friendships and what they mean to one's life and to this world as it floats through space.

There's love in them there emails. And that's a fact. At 2:30 a. m. I go out on my balcony. It's cold, but i don't care. If it's a clear night I look up and see stars. I realize I am looking into the vast universe of which I am an almost invisible part. And I know I am on a planet that is part of that vastness. Nothing supports the Earth's roaming except natural laws. I also wonder what law supports me in a my vagabond life. And what supports the people who live on this floating globe except commerce, trade and the exchange of information and ideas. And what binds us is the world wide network of friendship. Sometimes that net is broken by disrespect, carelessness, cruelty, misery or loss. But like the spider I recently wrote about, the net gets repaired and life and love go on.

So to my friends of the keyboard, thank you for being there.

DB - Vagabond
********************
Weekend Puzzle

A man goes out gambling one day. He goes to the first casino and pays $4 entrance fee.. While there he doubles his money and pays $4 to leave.

He goes to a second casino which charges him $4 to enter. He doubles his money and then pays another $4 to get out.

At the third casino he pays the $4 to enter. While in there he doubles his money and again pays $4 to exit.

Feeling good he enters a fourth casino, pays the $4 entry fee and doubles his money. After he pays the $4 to leave that casino he has no money left. He's broke.

How much money did he have to begin with, before he entered the first casino?

Good luck
dbdacoba@aol.com
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Brainy Guys

I don't know all of the answers. But I know a lot of questions.

Dana Bate
*******************
I don't have to bury my ego far to enjoy the company of smart people. I appreciate those who are smarter than I am. A friend once said to me "Why do you insist on believing that everyone is as intelligent as you are?" The answer is because I want them to be. I'm comfortable when they are, but I especially enjoy benefiting from the company of those who's minds work better and faster than mine. How else can one learn to think like a pro without the example of seeing and hearing how it's done?

One of the things I learned from great thinkers is that they are not prejudiced against those who's minds are slower by comparison. It means they are not intimidated by lazy logic, retarded reasoning or an insufficient intellect.

I used to know a linguist and philosopher named John. He was such a thinker. I once presented him with the problem which is the Weekend Puzzle for today (see below). He solved it in less than a minute. Everyone around was stunned, except for his girl friend.

The thing abut John was his tireless curiosity. He focused all of his intense concentration on anything and everything that came to his notice. It didn't seem to matter to him if it was a complicated mathematical problem, a pot of stew, a political issue, a ball game or an ethical dilemma. Everything got his attention and analysis.

Also, he wasn't a stern, somber felloe but he laughed a lot and enjoyed life. He was not a man of opinions, as far as I know, but one of reason, a sense of humor and no preconceptions.

Such a man can be an inspiration to any age. He taught me not to make assumptions but to ask questions. He taught me to trust my intellect. He showed me that the answers are already there and just need to be discovered. And every time he discovered an answer he was eager to share it with people.

I don't know how smart I am in comparison with the rest of the world in spite of what my friend asked, but I know I am smarter as a resulting of knowing John.

DB - The Vagabond
******************

A man goes out gambling one day. He goes to the first casino and pays $4 entrance fee. While there he doubles his money and pays $4 to leave.

He goes to a second casino which charges him $4 to enter. He doubles his money and then pays another $4 to get out.

At the third casino he pays the $4 to enter. While in there he doubles his money and again pays $4 to exit.

Feeling good he enters a fourth casino, pays the $4 entry fee and doubles his money. After he pays the $4 to leave that casino he has no money left. He's broke.

How much money did he have to begin with, before he entered the first casino?

(Keep in mind that John the philosopher, solved this in 30 seconds or so seconds. See how well you do.)

Good luck
dbdacoba@aol.com
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Friday, November 12, 2010

Pay The Price

It costs something to be what you are.

Shirley Abbott
*****************
What is the price tag on identity? Nothing is as complex as a human being. To attempt to understand oneself is a formidable task. To succeed in understanding oneself is an amazing achievement of cosmic proportions. It's a truism to say we are all capable of more than we do. But if you turn that sage observation over on the other side it says no one in a lifetime can accomplish all he is capable of. Sacrifices must be made and those are the costs.

Everyone must sacrifice his life to something. Freedom is being able to choose what that is. Most people want to simplify things, to lead a simple, uncomplicated life, simplicity of thought and feeling, without hardships, trouble or heavy burdens. That's a noble desire. And the closer one gets to the awakening sense of one's real character and nature the more the things that confuse drop away and the simpler life becomes. So what are those things?

MONEY We were told to get a good education so you could get a good job so you could make good money so you could live in a good home raise a good family and have a good retirement. When it first became clear to me I was an actor and that was what my life was going to be about, and that I was a character actor, I knew from the outset I was not going to be rich. There are very few character actors who get rich. In an early Hollywood film John Wayne played a Swedish sailor with a perfect accent. But as his movie persona developed he gave up being a character actor for the John Wayne we are familiar with. My career as an actor has been a source of satisfaction and fulfillment to me.

PEOPLE Those who know you, approve of you and praise you for what you do are good folks to have around. Those who minimize what you do, suggest that you should be doing something else or even coax you to grow into some area that doesn't interest you or fit with you desires and visions of yourself, in other words those who underestimate or overestimate you, may be friends and good people but it is best to stay away from their influence. A former friend once looked at the price of the paints I was buying and said "This is an expensive hobby." I didn't reply to him but he should have known that for an artist art is not a hobby.

POSSESSION Things, stuff, belongings, the gewgaws, the bagatelles, the jetsam, the important do-dads that we carry and collect can sometimes decidedly get in the way of facing the joy of discovering ourselves. When I went out of town or on the road to do a show I carried only two books with me, whatever book I was reading at the time and my complete Shakespeare, a source of endless inspiration with which I will not part. Whether it's forward or up, travel light and fast.

OPINIONS They say, whoever "they" are, you can't change horses in mid stream. Well you certainly can if it's a better horse. An open mind is an angel's workshop. There are always newer, fresher ideas out there waiting to be grasped and cuddled by a sturdy seeker. The world is fond of pasting the labels of undependability, inconsistency, "flip flopping" on those who change their minds, particularly those who are outspoken about it. But when a new and improved model of behavior becomes apparent only a fool would hide behind the barn and stick to old ways of doing things because they were always done that way and any change might upset a habit maven.

FREEDOM Whatever one does with one's life there are thousands of other things one might have done. The freedom to chose how you live your life implies the necessity of letting go of things you might have done and might have been. You can do more than one thing with your life but you can't do the few hundred that you might be right for. Even the concept of the Renaissance Man, the Jack of All Trades, has its limitations. There may be no limits to your life if you don't muddle it up with a lot of unnecessary activities that don't relate to it. To give up freedom to gain freedom is not a sin. Ernie said "Work defines you life." And I say "Do the work you love." If you do the work you love you will never do a day's work in your life, some wise person said.

OTHER THINGS There may be many things that must be left behind on the joyful road to self discovery and only you will know what they are. Some may be hardly noticeable and some may be heartbreaking. But if it is necessary to pay the cost and let them go, then do it and don't look back. Look forward.

To discover one's true identity and have the freedom to live it is an everyday blessing, which is ours, if we are willing to pay the price.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Thursday, November 11, 2010

No. No.

There is no entry on Vagabond Journeys today because I could not get on to the Internet last evening to write one. I hope that doesn't recur.

DB
*************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Down The Runway

Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.

Saint Francis de Sales
***********************
When I first read this quotation an unexpected twinge of calmness settled on me. A tension I was not even aware of floated into space. Things could be better. Everything could be better. I could be better. I could be perfect. Everyday I try to make some small steps toward that mystic goal. And every day I come short of perfection. Way short. So what?

How difficult is it to forgive myself for past failures? Very difficult if I dwell on them. But having patience with myself is different from forgiveness. I can regret that I didn't accomplish something extraordinary, or even outlandish, yesterday. But I'm too busy today to bother with regrets about yesterday. Learning to be patient with myself means that I'm not going to worry about not achieving perfection, or even accomplishing the extraordinary today.

It's a trap tying me into a knot of impatience when I have a clear goal and am pursuing it with energy and purpose. As the song says "I want what I want when I want it." On the other hand having that goal always before me and knowing that if I hold it there eventually it will be achieved if I'm willing to be patient with myself and not force the issue but take the opportunities as they come along. Small steps lead to great distances. It is more than good enough if I can wake a little bit everyday from this dream of a limited life.

There's an old saying in show business that goes "It'll be all right on the night." It means that it is imperfect in rehearsal, the lines are shaky, the character fades in and out, the story isn't clear and the relationships haven't been worked out yet, but the process is going on and even though certain things aren't right yet they will be by the time opening night comes. It's a reassuring thing to remember.

One can think of it as flying. Just as an airplane is designed to fly, an actor is designed to perform. The rehearsal process is like speeding down the runway until the actor has the machinery running correctly and he can take off and fly. I don't suggest that there is any lack of the wonderful creative work that actors can do in rehearsal. I have been privileged to be on stage when some inspired actors were filling in their canvas with imagination and amazing artistry. But the purpose of it is to get the aircraft in the air, to get the show open, to speak the words, tell the story, to enlighten and entertain.

Life is unfinished business. There is always something in the "IN" basket. I try to do what I can everyday. I try to do more than I can. But if I don't do it all I'll take St. Francis's advice and be patient with myself.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Spiders Never Quit

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Dale Carnegie
******************
My Uncle Stanley was an artist. His studio was next to his house. He never let his wife clean out the spider webs that adorned the corners. The afternoon sun would light them up and he enjoyed oll the various shapes and colors that occurred.

I was hiking one day with a friend in a forest. We came across a large tree with a cavernous hole in it. Across the hole was a large spider web. My friend took a dead leaf from the ground and dropped it on the web. A few moments later a spider emerged to check things out. I asked her how she knew to do that and she told me her boyfriend was an entomologist, and he showed her. The spider was attached to the web and any movement was a signal that there might be some food captured in the web's sticky arms. I was fascinated.

In the north countries they say you can tell how much snow is coming in the winter by how high the spiders build their webs.

But one of the best stories about spiders is the one involving Robert the Bruce. Robert, who eventually became King of Scotland had been fighting against England's King Edward the First for Scotland's freedom. Having failed six times he was hiding confused, tired and hopeless in a barn. While there he watched a spider trying to fix its web to a beam. After six tries the spider still had not accomplished it. On the seventh try it succeeded. Robert thought it was a great lesson the spider taught him. So he picked himself up, gathered his army and went after his goal a seventh time. He succeeded and Scotland eventually gained its freedom.

Whether that story is true or not the lesson is clear. We have had many examples in this country of the perseverance of the spider. Nothing is impossible. It wasn't to Thomas Edison or the Wright brothers or the army that attacked Normandy Beach. It is impossible for man to go to the moon, they said.

The lesson is for all of us.. You don't have to go and watch the spiders. Let the entomologists do that. But the tireless spider has the lesson we need to go ahead another time and finally do the thing that they say or you say is impossible.

Never give up.

DB - The Vagabond
___________________
___________________
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Monday, November 8, 2010

How To Disturb The Universe

He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.

Dylan Thomas
******************
One day I was talking with a young fellow, a high school senior, who had done a few plays in school and was considering majoring in drama when he got to college and then going into show business. He asked me what life was like for an actor. I don't remember everything I said to him, but it went something like this.

Life for an actor is interesting, exciting, aggravating, irritating, satisfying, fulfilling, frightening, insecure, fascinating, difficult, exhausting, vivifying, unpredictable, confusing, revealing, contorted, visionary, preposterous, challenging, inspiring, dangerous, resuscitating and extraordinary. The one thing it definitely never is, is boring.

People don't get into the arts in order not to be bored, but once in it becomes clear that work time is of the essence and down time is spare. If an actor is not memorizing lines, searching the script for it's hidden beauties, working his body, voice and spirit in rehearsal designing and fulfilling his role, taking the great leap into performance when all things else are of no matter, he is out looking for work. And there is nothing boring about it.

I for one am grateful that I was able, and still am, to be an artist. It's a mysterious, magical way to live. Most artists don't talk about it or even notice how special the work they do is to the world. T. S. Eliot wrote "Do I dare disturb the universe." A good artist is at the point of disturbing the universe every time he picks up a pen or a brush. Why? Because he is using natural law as his tool. Because art is not an imitation of nature, it is an imitation, or explanation of the essence of nature, "to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature" as Shakespeare put it, to explain the universe to itself. Physics tells us that when a thing is observed and contemplated it changes it's behavior. It is disturbed.

What gives us the right to do that? I don't know. I only know it's true. There are many excellent ways to live one's life, being an artist is only one of them. But we are given a special trust to do the work we must do. Most artists take it for granted.

I don't know what happened to that boy. Maybe he's a busy actor these days. That would be good. But I'm grateful to him for asking me that question so I could articulate what I know.

DB
**********
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Weekend Puzzle Answer

WEEKEND PUZZLE ANSWER

There are four correct participants in this puzzle, and smart ones they are indeed.
First, Pacifica of the Email Lions.
Second, Sue of the Blogspot Tigers
Third, Val also of theTigers.
Fourth, Bruce of the Email Lions.

Here is Bruce's entry which explains it very well.

--------------------------
CLOSE PROXIMITY both mean being close
CRIMINAL INTENT this is legit
FALSE PRETENCE a pretence is already false
FREE GIFT a gift is allegedly free and without conditions
OPENING GAMBIT a gambit is already an opening (in chess)
PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA two words for a large musical ensemble
PIN NUMBER should be PI number
SPOTLESSLY CLEAN spotless already beyond clean
UNEXPECTED SURPRISE already unexpected
--------------------------------------------
Other suggestion include: sherry wine, cash money, sudden impulse, join together. I could have added ATM machine, ABM missal, NATO organization or sum total..

Congratulations guys, you all win the grand prize of an ink pen.

DB
*******************

Change Your Mind

While persevering with a belief may be an epistemic virtue in some contexts, stubbornness is not and its presence does not render knowledge better.

Paul Faulkner
*****************
The tide comes in, the tide goes out. The only thing constant in life is change. But why is it that when we go to sleep we often wake up, and when we wake up in the morning we just go to sleep? People have been known to have dreams which reveal important truths. Why do they come in dreams and not in the light of daily thought?

A person who does not have a regular pattern of thought would probably qualify for being insane. And in that pattern is woven a system of thinking that includes what we know, what we believe and what we question. The daily routines of life keep us sane, I guess, or at least they keep our insanity under control.

Philosophers are those who think very deeply about things. They usually begin by doing something else. They are writers or scientists. They study mathematics, linguistics, psychology or some other field, and gradually work their minds into the rarified world of metaphysics. But along the road of trying to understand and define existence they arrive at points of contact where there has to be an idea expressed which formulates their thinking, a theorem, a touchstone to further thought and enquiry. But a true philosopher, like a true scientist, is gifted with the humility to be able to prove himself wrong.

Gottlob Frege, a German mathematician and philosopher, (1848 - 1925) thought that all cardinal numbers are extensions into the concepts of logical thought. After many years and further study he abandoned the theory. (Part of the reason for his change of mind had to do with Russell's Paradox (maybe I'll write about that some day if I have the nerve).) Frege was and still is an important philosopher.

The great lesson here is that a person who had worked for years to develop a system of thought that would explain things was ready and willing to give it up. I try not to think about the wrong opinions I held tenaciously to in my life. It wasn't hard to change my mind when I learned better. What was hard was being willing to change it. I feared that if I admitted I was wrong, even just to myself, I was also admitting my stupidity. Quite the opposite, in some cases the very thing I believed and was so certain of, even to the point of being called stubborn, was, in fact, superior to the so-called facts I was being given. While, at the same time, other ideas had to fall from the mental cart because they were wrong. I learned to let them go gracefully because I realized I wasn't stupid and that a mark of intelligence was being able to change one's mind.

There are people who stubbornly hold on to a belief even in the face of undeniable truth, or who insist on their own way of thinking and will not consider any evidence right or wrong to the contrary. Those people add little or nothing to the world. Theories of existence, anthropology, psychology, history, cosmology must come under scrutiny at all times and any thinker in those fields must be ready to change his mind if necessary. When an idea is challenged the result may be a better idea, or it may be a fist fight.

DB - The Vagabond
******************
WEEKEND PUZZLE

Below are some familiar phrases. Only one of them is legitimate. Which one is it and what is wrong with the others? That is your chore.

EXTRA: You get bonus point if you can think of other illegitimate ones.
--------------------------
CLOSE PROXIMITY
CRIMINAL INTENT
FALSE PRETENCE
FREE GIFT
OPENING GAMBIT
PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PIN NUMBER
SPOTLESSLY CLEAN
UNEXPECTED SURPRISE

dbdacoba@aol.com

Good luck
DB
*************

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Creative Process

Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.

Frank Tibolt
*****************
One of the amazing things to me about being an artist is to see the result. I can read someone's poem, see a picture or hear a piece of music and not know what went into making it. I can appreciate the result. But when I look at my own work and know the steps, the struggle, the doubts, the discoveries, the anguish and delight that brought it into existence, I am impressed if the result is good, but I'm more amazed at the existence of the creative process itself. It is a gift to me to be able to do the kind of work I do and have done all my life.

One draws a line on a piece of paper, picks out a tone on a musical instrument or puts a word down on a page and the famous thousand mile journey has begun with that single step. I do a lot of writing in my head before I approach the keyboard. There's an idea. I let it sit in my mind and draw nourishment from my life, my memories or what I've learned from other writers. Soon it begins to send forth shoots and blossoms. I start putting words down and joining them together, making patterns of thought. A patch of a mental garden begins to take shape. I decide what to put in it, what looks nice there, what is appropriate and what's not.

Then I stop and breathe. The creative process is afoot and I can trust that it is. It will supply me with the ideas I want because I have put down the right soil and nourished it propoerly. I can answer emails, delete spam, go to the market, wash the dishes or even take a nap and when I come back to it it's waiting and ready for me. In the meantime it has grown some more and I will see that when I type the next word.

As an actor getting a new script was like receiving a surprise package or a map to buried treasure. What was a printed book, with words and ideas, bound together by the hand of a playwright soon took on another life as my life was bound up in it. Eventually the book was once again just a book but the work of art was in the action on the stage. That is the alchemy of theatre.

DB - The Vagabond
********************
WEEKEND PUZZLE

Below are some familiar phrases. Only one of them is legitimate. Which one is it and what is wrong with the others? That is your chore.

EXTRA: You get bonus point if you can think of other illegitimate ones.
--------------------------
CLOSE PROXIMITY
CRIMINAL INTENT
FALSE PRETENCE
FREE GIFT
OPENING GAMBIT
PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PIN NUMBER
SPOTLESSLY CLEAN
UNEXPECTED SURPRISE

Good luck
DB
*************

Friday, November 5, 2010

'Tis True, 'Tis True

It is best to love wisely, no doubt, but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

William Thackeray
*********************
So you have a broken heart do you? Well now isn't that a shame? Welcome back to life and sanity.

If you go chomping on unknown bait you may find a hook. If you put your hand in the fire you will get burned. If you put your hand in the fire again you will get burned again. That's natural law.

I am one who has had his heart broken many times, because I refused to settle down. It takes some people a long time to learn their lessons. But the gratifying thing is that with each broken heart comes another lesson about love. One cannot lead an adventuresome life without getting stuck in the fire now and then. I advocate loving wisely, of course. But there is always a price tag an any human relationship, especially an intimate one. And some of those costs are dangerous. As Norman Mailer said "There is no such thing as safe sex."

When the costs become cost plus perhaps it's time to count them. It is truly foolish not to count them but perhaps your partner did the counting and found it too high. Broken heart coming up.

Love is diving off the pier before you know how deep the water is. It's collecting sometimes useless things. It's forgiving things you can't forget. It's tying a knot that should last forever but won't. Love is a fancy, a vision, a fondness, a dream. It's standing in the rain to catch a glimpse.

To give one's heart to anyone or anything is a risky venture but if the result is love returned than it's worth it. If the result is love lost it is also worth it because one has grown in many ways. It takes time but a broken heart is curable after all.

I once knew a young fellow who thought he was an actor. He was talentless and undisciplined. One day he said he never had to pay for love. I thought, Boy, you have got a lot to learn.

So what's the danger of falling in love again, even foolishly? The danger is you might grow wiser and more tender.

A. E. Housman put it very well.

"When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubies 5
But keep your fancy free.’
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again, 10
‘The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.’
And I am two-and-twenty, 15
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true."
---------
And now I am one and seventy and am still not sure what love is. Or loving wisely either.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 7 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Faith And Belief

I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have.

Studs Terkel
***************
Go Studs! Why can't we leave each other's religions alone?

I would like to know why so many people I don't know are interested in my soul.

One day I was standing with a group of friends on the sidewalk. A car drove up and stopped. A young man got out, rushed over and handed me a pamphlet from some Baptist organization. The title of it was "Are You Saved Yet?"

When I was a broadcaster I got a lot of fan mail, but one day I got a postcard from a listener who said "I am praying for your immortal soul."

Another day as a girl was getting off the subway, she threw into my lap a magazine from some eastern religion and told me to read it.

I was in rehearsal for a show and one of the actors came up to me and tried to sell me on the truth of some Jewish splinter group;

I was at a party given by a director for his colleagues and friends. He had a penthouse apartment and outside was the roof of the building, a big wide area where one could sit privately and enjoy the fresh air and the view. During the few hours I was sitting there a fellow came up to tell my about Jesus. Another tried to teach me a chant that she was sure would solve my problems and give me solace. (Did I need solace?) Another fellow talked to me at length about his meditation group and invited me to attend.

I am an ardent reader of philosophy and world religions, so I made short work of those people. I appreciate their concern, generosity and compassion, but I don't appreciate the proselytizing. I kept wondering, though, why I was being singled out by these people. Was it my cigarette? My beer? When they look at me do they see horns and a tail, or vampire teeth, or smoke signals of desperation coming out my ears? I put it to you, you who read my journal, am I the devil's man?

I have numbered among my friends two Protestant ministers, an Episcopal priest and a Catholic priest. None of them ever tried to convert me or to save my "immortal soul."

To tell you the truth I have received more spirituality out of Debtors Anonymous meetings than I ever got in a church. I know what I think, I know what I believe and I know where my faith is. I don't mean to put down anyone's religion. I don't and I wouldn't. I just want people to leave my faith, or my lack of it, alone.

DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Who Wins?

There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

James Thurber
*****************
When we go to a play or watch a movie or a TV show we aren't aware of the extremely bright lights that are trained on the performers. The actor is facing into a glare of lights to which his eyes have to become accustomed. From the stage the off stage area looks pitch black. Because his eyes have become accustomed, he can live and move through the scenery and the story without squinting. Without those lights we would be unable to see the action on stage. We would not become involved in it. But if those lights were turned toward the audience the glare would also be too bright to see the action. The actors perform in the glare and we see the reflected light, the glow.

For the past many weeks we have been submitted to the glare of venomous political campaign ads on television. It's enough to make you squint. All the raging, finger pointing and name calling has been like bright glaring lights turned on us. And those ads have done nothing but obscure the real action. I hope and believe they were ignored, as much as they could be, by intelligent, thinking people.

The real drama taking place has nothing to do with any of those miscreant offerings. The real story is about what the ins have done for America in clear, factual terms and how they wish to continue and improve, and what the outs plan and hope to do for America in clear, factual terms. It is difficult to see that glowing through the glaring of nastiness that has characterized this campaign. We'll see and hear more of it in the various acceptance speeches, I think.

We've been urged to vote, vote, vote. But a lot of people don't know who or what they're voting for. Elections should be done by an informed electorate. But no one is informed by the glare of loud, flashing and, too often, spurious TV ads.

When I lived in New York City and went to vote I found a ballot as long as my arm. Not only were there folks running for every office, council, committee and judgeship imaginable, but there was also a big brace of different political parties to choose from, and at the bottom a bunch of confusing initiatives. Without knowing who and what I was in favor of I would have been lost. During the Carter/Ford presidential election day I stood in line for an hour and a half to vote because too many people went into the booth and couldn't make up their minds about one local candidate or another. Instead of shouting "Vote, Vote" responsible people in charge should be saying "Learn, Learn."

What are the issues? Does a candidate really understand them? Where do they stand (or fall) on them? What provisions do they have in mind? What vision do they have? What new ideas are they ready to present and support?

I realize I am writing after the fact, but that doesn't matter. The uninformed voter is endemic to our society and archetypical of all humans I suppose. Too many people express opinions with no knowledge or experience to back them up. The fact that we persist in surviving is a manifestation of something else, I guess. The horrifying thought that maybe it doesn't matter. Does anyone really have their finger in the dike? Is it some natural law or divine decision that we keep on living? Is government, hence politics, just another game humans play while the Earth keeps rotating? And if so, who cares? To some people the fact that the Giants won the World Series is a more important outcome than who won the senatorial race in California. Are they wrong?

DB - The Lord High Vagabond
**************************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 6 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Watch Your Back

It's as hard to see one's self as it is to look backwards without turning around.

Thoreau.
***************
I could name names, but I won't. There are and have been some well known people in show business whose professional personae are the opposite of what they are really like. There are performers you have seen and enjoyed who project a positive demeanor in their work, some have been comic actors, musical comedy heroes, friendly, kindly, likeable types who are gifted entertainers and whose gifts stop the minute they walk off stage or the camera shuts off.

Fortunately I have never had to work closely with any such skunks, but I have seen them in action and heard tales, some of which are too graphically sick for me to repeat here.

Here are a few ways such moral criminals work. An actor will do his best to make another actor mess up and then when they are backstage or when the camera is off blame the other guy for messing up. I knew an actor who refused to say his lines properly until opening night. He didn't gave a clean cue. We never knew what he was going to say. When on opening night he got his lines right, we weren't prepared for it, we hesitated, the timing was off and afterworld he criticized us for being unprepared. I knew an actress who jumped on people's lines and wouldn't let them finish and then criticize them for taking too much time. I've known actors who will stick their faces out from behind scenery to intrude on others and get a laugh.

You see this in films, on stage and on TV and radio. I once worked with a radio announcer who was a gifted broadcaster. But his gift as a human being stopped when the microphone went off. He was very clever and funny. But his humor consisted mainly in making fun of other people. It was very amusing as long ss you weren't the subject of his jokes. His meanness was more than a streak, it was the armor he wore and the skin that covered him.

We shared a studio. I worked in the morning and he in the afternoon. There was a stuffed rocking chair at the control board where we worked. One day I fell and hurt my back. It wasn't a serious injury but it was painful for me to sit in that chair. I found a straight back chair, put the other one aside and used it. It helped. I always put back the first chair for him before he came on. One day I forgot and he became so enraged he hid the straight backed chair in the garage. When I came to work early the next morning, I couldn't find it. The morning show was too busy for me to take the time to find it, so I had to do a days work in great discomfort.

Unfortunately his nasty humor wasn't confined to when the microphone was off. He would say anything about anybody over the air. One day I said to him "Watch your back" the people you talk about it don't like it, they will be resentful. His answer was "I don't care." So sure enough one day he insulted the wrong person and was fired instantly, taken right off the board while a record was playing and sent packing. The boss took over, The clever cracked pot announcer left town.

I may be an innocent soul, but I have never understood that kind of behavior. What gives a person the right to think that just because he is popular he can be reductive to those around him. How can a person be so successful at pleasing and influencing others and yet have no strength of character? What does that sort of misbehavior do fo the world? And what does it do to rob the person who does it of the best of themselves? What does the rest of the world see of us that we don't see? We can't see the trail of good or evil, seeds or garbage we leave behind us without turning around and looking. So turning around often is what we must do. For it's in turning around, watching our backs, seeing where we've come from, what we've done and the impression we have made on the world, that can help us to understand ourselves. It takes courage, something the bully lacks but the wise person welcomes..

As Robert Burns put it, "O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us."

DB ' The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Monday, November 1, 2010

Choosing Sides

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Alfred Tennyson
*******************
Which side are we on? Those who consider Osama bin Laden a hero, consider Barack Obama a villain. Which side are we on? Those who consider Al Queda friends, consider the current American government an enemy. Which side are we on?

And why must we take sides at all? I was born into a nation which I came to understand was the vanguard of cultural coexistence, liberty. opportunity and human rights. At least it was in theory. I saw the struggles, and got involved in some of them, to try and establish those ideals as true. But all the time I was growing up, and still today I hear about who is in and who is out, who is right and who is wrong, even who is an American and who isn't.

I have also seen the American ideal plummet into ignorance, divisiveness, sensationalism and street corner nastiness. What brought us so low? We are caught in an evil vise where Americans are bombing Muslims and Muslims are bombing Americans. As long as we keep bombing them they will keep bombing us and as long as they keep bombing us we will keep bombing them. What kind of so-called leadership ever brought us to this desperate madness? In all my reading and viewing I haven't found one serious example of anyone trying to figure out why. .I don't know what the average citizen in an Islamic country thinks, but I know that the average American doesn't.

Islam may be the fastest growing religion in the world, but the Muslim fanatics are not going to make the United States a Muslim country any more than the fanatical Christians are going to make it a Christian country in spite of their claims.

Where are the diplomats, the statesmen and women, those who can discuss without venomous name calling? Why can't responsible, progressive thinkers sit down with theologians of all faiths, find out what are the common denominators of Constitutional law, Parliamentary law, Talmudic law and Sheria law, and from there start to work out compromises that allow for a real coexistence among people, a newer world?

Or should we just continue to attack each other until someone drops THE BIG ONE?

Which side are we on? From my point of view, considering the power, technology and weaponry available, it has never been more important to grasp the need to make the world more livable for every nation and to demonstrate what the American ideal was about from the beginning. Are savagery, brutality and war our ideals, or mutual respect, honest competition and good sportsmanship? It is too late to regress into outgrown positions, but to seek and inch forward into a newer world "Tis not too late."

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************