My Old Friend

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

Chinese proverb
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Hello Frosty
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For me, one of the most poignant moments in all of grand opera is in the last act of Puccini's "La Boheme." Four men live together in a cold attic apartment in Paris. One of them, Colline, decides to go out and sell his overcoat to buy medicine for his roommate's very ill girl friend in the hope of keeping her alive. He sings a short but sad farewell to his coat, the friend who has kept him warm and whose pockets always carried the poetry and philosophy that he loves. "Addio. Addio."

It brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it.

A few times in my life, for various reasons I have had to abandon my library. I love books and I hope that wherever mine have ended up they are loved as much I loveed them. But there is one book I have never parted with. It sits at my elbow when I am at my desk. If I go anywhere for more than a day it goes with me in my back pack or suitcase. It is one of my dearest friends.

I bought it brand new from a bookstore in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1957. It's almost as old as I am. I paid $6.50 for it. You can barely read the price, written in pencil on the inside. I wrote my name underneath the price in red ink which is still quite visible.

It's a small volume, very small considering what it contains. It's 7 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches and 1 inch thick. In all the bookstores I've been in over the years, I've never seen another copy of it. It was printed by Oxford University Press in 1947.It is in very threadbare condition due to age and use. I've taped the inside of the hard cover to the pages, but the tape on the outside spine is coming loose again. The pages are very thin India paper and fortunately I haven't torn any of them.

What is it? It's my complete Shakespeare. And it is complete; all the plays and all the poems, including all the sonnets, in one small volume. Shakespeare is a divine gift to the human race, and no matter what English professors and stage directors do to it, it remains a rare treasure, recognized the world over.

This book has been a continuous inspiration to me for 55 years. I need a magnifying glass to read it now, but, so what? Falstaff, Lear and Juliet still come alive whenever the book is opened. I would never part with it. If, heaven forbid, I had to move suddenly this book would be one of the first things I would grab.

I love it. It's my old friend. It's the garden in my pocket.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
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Under The Old Man's Hat

Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.

William Shakespeare
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Hello Boa Vista, Brazil
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Now isn't that a remarkable thing? Wisdom is not found in the board room, the class room or in any chamber of any congress. If you're looking for wisdom you might as a man who sleeps under the night sky in a cardboard box when he has to.

The man in the blue suit with a brief case may approach the beggar and give him a dollar but can he give him any wisdom? Not likely. The beggar has more than likely faced things the man in the suit can't even imagine.
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Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

When Jacob, the Patriarch of the children of Israel, came to meet Pharaoh he blessed him. Why? Because it was customary for the older man to bless the younger? Maybe. Because Pharaoh was letting Jacob's family live in Egypt during hard times? Perhaps. Because Jacob, an old man who had seen loss and gain. war and famine, who had fled from a life threatening situation and then gone back to face it, who had learned to survive under desperate circumstances, who had slept out under the night sky with a rock for his pillow, was wiser then the young monarch of Egypt and wanted to convey good wishes to him? No doubt.

Jacob was a prophet, a seer, who spoke with angels, who could look into the hearts of his twelve sons and tell what would become of them, who could look into the heart of Pharaoh and read Pharaoh's own poverty of wisdom and the future of Egypt, who could instruct his sons not to bury him there after he died, and to be prepared for their eventual removal.

The old man with the hat would appreciate a penny, or a dollar, but he quite likely knows more about the pharaoh in the suit than the man in the suit knows about himself. In fact, he knows so much he can only say "Bless you."

When a state legislature votes a bill into law in the face of thousands of people out on the street crying to them not to do it, you know where wisdom is not.

Harken to the cry of the street and regard it. It is the whisper of wisdom.

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

Only 6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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