Ode To Herman

A great man does not lose his child-heart.

Mencius
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Hello Puebla, Mexico. Celebrate.
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Two times in my career I played the same role in a play by Arthur Miller called "The Price." It's a story about two brothers, one a scientist and the other a cop, the cop's wife and an old Jewish man who comes to buy the furniture piled up in their attic. It doesn't sound like much of a plot and it isn't, but during the course of the play each of the characters is brought into a state of self realization that is a blessing for all of them.

I played the cop, the first time in Virginia and the second time in New Jersey. In the New Jersey production the old Jewish man, Solomon, was played by an old Jewish man named Herman Arbeit. Herman was born in 1925 and had a long and vigorous career.

It has never occurred to me that I could ever stop learning things and I certainly learned things while working with Herman. Most of the first act is a long scene between Solomon and Victor, the cop. I was impressed by Herman's intensity and commitment. We had to take a bus from New York to the theatre in New Jersey. Herman was always the first one on the bus. He was thrilled, in his quiet aged way, to go to work. And being with him on the stage was an adventure. He truly went to his role with a child-heart.

Herman once wrote: "In addition to learning and growing in a craft, acting proved to be enormous personal therapy, not only giving me insights to personal problems but challenging me to take the strength garnered onstage and incorporate it into my daily life."

I just read in the trade paper that Herman recently died. I'm sad. For the all too brief run of "The Price" he was a positive force from whom I learned things about acting and life.

DB - The Vagabond
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Never give up.
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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For Crying Out Loud

So my voice becomes a breath and a shout. One prepares the way, the other surrounds my loneliness with angels.

Rainer Maria Rilke
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Hello Acapulco, Mexico
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"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands." Psalm 100.

It was the first week in August. I was living in a residential hotel, where I had lived for many years. I wrote out a check for the rent and presented it at the front desk, but I knew there wasn't enough money in my account to cover it.

During the previous week I had made a soap opera appearance for which I was owed about $700. I was assured the check would be mailed early enough to be in my mail box by Thursday at the latest. If I could get that check into my account by Friday morning the hotel check wouldn't bounce. The hotel was patient with me but I knew they didn't want a bounced check. They could get me out in 3 days if they wanted to. They tried it once before.

I returned from my day of hustling at about 6 p.m. on Thursday and opened my mailbox. It was empty. No check.

I went up to my room in anger and agitation. I was desperately trying to figure out what to do. There were no buildings across the street from me so I threw open the window and hollered out into the night, into outer space, with all my voice, WHERE'S MY MONEY ???!!!

I sat there for a moment thinking "what to do, what to do" when my intuition told me to go down and look in the mail box again. I knew it was empty, but I also knew that sometimes the hotel was slow and inept at distributing the mail. Maybe it had landed in someone else's box and would get returned. So I put on my shoes and went downstairs. I opened my mail box and there was my check.,

I knew that it wouldn't take long to process that check because ABC TV and I both banked at the same branch. But, all the same and for good measure, I took it to one of the officers and explained my predicament, He, a nice young Asian fellow, took care of it immediately and my rent check cleared.

When I told my friend David about shouting out the window and then getting the check he said "Wow. That's service."

I said "Yes. I think I got the angels to listen to me"

My noise wasn't all that joyful, but it was an earnest shout. Try it someday. You might wake up an angel and get what you want.

DB - The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

4 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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