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Harry,
What an incredible gift to the
list. Real life. That is the stuff that makes
population theory "short circuit." And the economic
model for marriage that the society now preaches is the old
aristo-crat model for state marriages. Somehow we are all
"States" in the minds of the current fad. It reminds me of the old
"Heroes Journey" workshop model from the 1970s.
There are those who flow through life in marriage
like the current fad in jobs. Six years is enough and then on
to someone else. My first marriage lasted ten and my second 18
years. Well, I congratulate you on your marriage, your
children, and your taste in appreciations. I will share
that I am a newly married man and we will have no more
children. But what we do have is a marriage that
encompasses our business. We are more, together then we could ever
be apart in spite of the marriage penalty. For
those of us who are not into large companies as our homes, developing the home
into the company is wonderful. I would add that large
companies often are at war with their CEO's families since they are potential
"trust busters" in the case of those families splitting and the time they demand
from their upper management often does exactly that. I have chosen a
different path closer to the old culture of my people.
My company is not at war with my marriage, but I'll tell
you why in a moment.
It (company/marriage) is an old fashioned model
that I learned from the deep consciousness of my parents, who worked for the
school but both were in the same profession. The academy is
about as close as the company model gets to what, my wife and I now do, but
still with a good medical plan and retirement. We have
neither and will work till we drop so work had better be an ecstatic
event. Or as an old teacher of mine never tired of
saying, "Singing had better be like making love or you won't have the courage to
do it!" He was the teacher who pulled Maya
Angelou off of the street and rebuilt Robeson when he came home
from Russia.
I believe the same as Ed Weick attributed to
those folks in Canada.
"Out of their traditions, they cannot understand how anyone can "own"
the land or how the land can be "scarce". That simply does not make
sense to them (or at least it didn't until quite recently). Capital to
them are the skills they have or the tools they can make. Historically,
their populations grew only very slowly, if at all...... Their lives were
not grounded in production, consumption and exchange (though they did these
things) but in what they call "the calandar of the
seasons". Seasonal change, quite extreme where they
lived, determined what they could do and where they had to go to do
it."
Home is a very powerful thing. We
all need it. I felt affirmed in my home when my beautiful
partner finally said yes to being my wife after living together "by the IRS
rules for all of those years" just to save money.
Remember, in a traditional Cherokee home, the wife owns all of the property, so
at sixty I had better make this work or I will be walking the
streets standing around a fire in a
barrel.
Regards
REH
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 4:15
AM
Subject: Re: Even nationalised circuses!
(Re: Loss of the middle class)
Ray,
I too have a lovely wife and have had
her for 57 years. Can you imagine the poor woman having to endure me for more
than half a century?
But I can still appreciate a beauty like Halle
Berry - I'm happy to say. Yet, a woman doesn't have to be a beauty. As you
well know, she just has to be a woman.
Unfortunately my wife has
emphysema and must be connected to oxygen all the time by a 50 ft tube, which
allows her to move round a little.
Last week we had some visitors from
Seattle. Friday night, 2 of our 3 daughters, along with their husbands, our
two sons, two grandsons and a guest - a long haul truck driver, who also
happens to be a gourmet chef, sat down with us to an exceptional Mexican
meal.
The trucker/chef was a little too late to help with the basic
cooking, so he spent some time adding seasonings and spices to various dishes.
The artist is always needed.
I must say I feel a little sad that people
are retreating even from the nuclear family of two children, to one child, or
none. I have a feeling that marriage is a contract to take care of the
children you intend to have. If a couple doesn't intend to have children,
perhaps marriage is an empty form.
Ray, I'm sure you have noticed how
much women have affected you all your life.
Harry
______________________________________________
Ray wrote:
No
Harry. The word isn't education but
advertisement. And its not the kids. They have
changed. It is the parents and the older folks as well as the
ill-educated new rich who are still bug idles (Beatles) now approaching
sixty. There is a great hope but when all you get is
commercial advertising for garbage then what you have is a garbage
mind. As for the dirty old man. Yes I have a
lovely wife who is a wonderful writer, composer and teacher.
Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: Harry
Pollard
To: Ray Evans
Harrell ; Michael Gurstein ; Futurework@Scribe.
Uwaterloo. Ca
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 6:49
PM
Subject: Re: Even nationalised circuses! (Re: Loss of the
middle class)
Ray,
You are a dirty old man!
Of
course, I'm a lot older and dirtier than you are.
But to males of
any age there is nothing better than seeing a beautiful women - unless
it's conversing with an intelligent one.
The only way to save the
arts is by increasing the number of people who appreciate them. But, that
seems unlikely at the moment (note Arthur's Immigration post). When a
general appreciation is lacking, the Arts turn to the rich and powerful.
Then perhaps to equally rich and powerful governments who throw a pittance
or two toward the starving artists.
But the only way for the arts
to flourish in a free society is by attracting a large following. And the
only way for that following to materialize is by education.
Initially in the schools, later by peer group and knowledgeable
adults.
As it is, the kids are trapped into a mindless addiction by
rhythmic noise and "presentation". There is more communication in the scat
singing of Ella and Sarah than in the tuneless noise that serves as music
for the deprived
generation.
Harry
_______________________________________________-
Ray
wrote:
Hi Mike,
I would never cross
a Canadian on this. I was told at the audition
that
the two people who started the troupe were Russian.
Is that incorrect?
There also were a lot of Russian and Ukranian
performers auditioning at the
time. And a very
large percentage of the Big Apple Circus performers came
from the old
Soviet System as well. Although there was goodly
number
from Mexico, and the contortionists are trained in the State
System in
China. It seemed indicative of what China
is doing to exist in this
world. If I
see one more goose stepping military tape from China and
North Korea
again I will vomit. It reminds me of the fat Russian
women
propaganda tape they used to show before the Soviet System
changed. Now I
go to parties with the most
beautiful women you could imagine with some
wearing costumes that
show that they were not raised with the kind of guilt
that we in the
West are accustomed to.
All that aside, Montreal and Canada
deserves credit for supporting and
nurturing such a wonderful world
class troupe. We let Martha Graham's
company die
here when she was trying to get some kind of national
designation for
this major American contribution to world dance. It
has
been heartbreaking to see Graham's body of work as well as the
educational
system slowly disappear. Well some Capitalist
had a bargain on the school
and built a new building on the
site. The Muse Tree in the garden was cut
down. In
the end the world will forget him and remember that we
didn't
care. The Canadians are way ahead of
us on so much of this. Only in
NYCity is America
represented well with Lincoln Center and the
cultural
jewels. NY has so many museums that a
mayor not long ago, let two major
ones leave the
city. Of course one was the Heye Foundation Museum of
the
American Indian. It went to Washington and
became the National Museum of
the American Indian at the
Smithsonian.
Oh yes, the middle class. Well,
that article is old news for all but
the
politicians. It was beginning to change in the
decade of the 1990s but it
never quite got there.
The middle class is docile and frightened. It
will take a
lot more before they become radicalized enough to do anything
about
it. But when they do, remember the anger at
9/11. There is a
latent streak of violence in America
that I don't believe most people
understand. It is
not smart to poke a sleaping
Jaguar.
Ray
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