The Roles We Play, and Accept, in Our Changing Lives!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:        The Roles We Play and Accept in Our Changing Lives!

One might suppose, if one is in one's GeezerHood, it could be a bit dangerous to become overly contemplative in times of quiet.  Non-productive, possibly even foolish thoughts might tend to flood one's consciousness.  

However, inasmuch as we've started this conversation, may as well plow ahead.  Certain metaphors -- or are they similes? -- spring into the cerebellum like.................................

 Mystic Pronghorns.  (Please see image, above!)  A chain, for example, can have many links, but still it is a single entity.  A tree sprouts a great many branches, but remains a single unit of living flora.  A Venetian blind contains many adjustable slats, but the whole is one thing, one product...  You get the idea, eh?

You see where I'm going with this nonsense?  (I wish I did!!?).  A human being has many

parts and many roles; it's the latter, life's many roles, that leads us into a more interesting discussion.  (One might suppose that "interesting" could be a bit of a presumption, depending on how this meandering plays out!)

When born I became a child of parents.  In the passage of time I realized I was also a brother to a sister and a brother, (the latter a bigger and stronger entity who'd pay me a dime or a quarter if, when he practiced his jujitsu on me, I would become the injured party, so to speak.  Not sure if he ever paid off!  Not really important in the scheme of this dissertation...  but I digress!...)

Next, student in a class full of students, then member of the US military services in a squadron or a flight or a phalanx full of a "GI's."  Student again in a university setting...  lots of different classrooms with instruction in many different disciplines.  Friend, companion, confidant, member of society in general, one who, with a certain degree of intelligence and understanding,  is able to accept and embrace diversity, making friends with those of different beliefs, colors and creeds.  

Then, on to what many consider the more important roles in the fascinating diversity of one's lifetime.  Marriage partner, father, uncle, grandfather, granduncle, great granduncle...  Paternal and avuncular roles can be critical, and crucial, to those over whom we have influence!

Where we going with this?  Each of us, I believe, is a composite of many different parts, possibly many different stages of life, even, I guess, many different or changing personalities or identities.  Was I a compete idiot as a teenager?  Quite possibly.  Do people improve with age, like cheese or wine or fruit pies or leftovers from a holiday feast?  Hmmm...  a ponderous question, indeed!  One hopes the answer is "YES"!

I'd like to think that we human beings actually do become our better selves as we age, as we grow in maturity and experience.  Parents seem to improve as grandparents. Although their children may disagree when grandparents return grandchildren to their parents, the kids wired and crazed with sugary treats, and overly stimulated with rough play as grandparents regress into childlike foolishness.  (Better selves, better angels?)

So what's the point?  I don't know...  Life is a series of stages and roles and change, of course.  As the brilliant Carl Jung suggests, "Life behaves as if it goes on (and on forever)"...  It's the illusion of immortality, something many if not most share, at least when we're young...  in middle life...  or even older and healthy...!  And we as human beings have the capacity to accept our varying roles, we have the power to change and enrich our lives if we choose to do so...  possibly the best path or direction or trajectory a human life can pursue (follow?)!  Change!  Change for the better!  Improve with time, but only if the changing road we travel is paved with the macadam of our better selves.   

I guess we all continue to evolve, if we're fortunate enough to live long and productive lives.  Sadly, so many lack that good fortune that allows the "blessed" among us to enjoy our roles, accept them, and change, grow in wisdom and improve, while pursuing knowledge and truth along the way.

(Dedicated to my beautiful and talented nuclear and extended family.  Thank you and Good Morrow...  Happy Days Ahead as well!)       

Humbly Submitted 08-30-2023 --  Joel K.

        

How Do We Become and Identify as Cultured Beings?... Are Some of Us Already There... Possibly?

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:     

How Do We Become and Identify as Cultured Beings...?

Are Some of Us Already There...  Possibly...?

cul·ture  [ kuhl-cher ] 

Is There a Common, Universal Definition?.......

"...All the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, 

religion, rituals, art."

As we progress along the great journey of human existence, ultimately -- if we're fortunate and if we truly hope to achieve advanced age -- we arrive at a railway stop some, including myself, prefer to term, "GeezerHood."

Many sentient creatures like to think of ourselves as being, well, call it "cultured."  That is, we tend to believe we have reached a certain plateau along the intellectual growth chart.  It's somewhat like a pencil notch on a natural, unpainted wooden plank in "everyone's" kitchen where mothers mark in pencil physical attainments in height, an achievement many parents deem vitally important to record.  

Returning to the theme of this frequent foolishness, SweetHeart and I recently witnessed Shakespeare's superb comedy, As You Like It, in an outdoor, forested setting.  Wonderful ambiance.  And the cast, crew and overall performance, including the use of a live tree, were superlative.  We left feeling terribly cultured, almost erudite!  I walked from the play feeling quite superior, with a sneer on my silly face for those who seemed to be staring at me askance!!    

More recently, we traveled to Spring Green, WI, to the American Players Theatre, a gorgeous outdoor playhouse, and witnessed Romeo and Juliet, one of Bill Shakespeare's remarkably fine dramas.  The performance was spectacular.

The character of Romeo was played by a deaf actor, beautifully and sensitively performed.  Another deaf actor played the priest or confessor.  Both actors signed their roles while hearing actors spoke the lines, somewhat offstage.  Wonderful concept!  The principal props were wooden partitions that actors could climb, sit atop or use as props, such as a prison-like enclosure.  All four of the props, or partitions, were set on castors to be moved about as needed by the actors and the scenes being portrayed....  and for climbing, perching atop! 

At a point in this outstanding performance, the wooden partitions play a key role in the slaying of Mercutio.  Romeo steps between Tybalt and Mercutio causing the latter to become distracted, thus causing the fatal blow from Tybalt's saber, through an opening in one of the partitions.  Before succumbing to his fatal wound, Mercutio cries the fateful lines, "A curse on both your houses," referring of course to the long-feuding families -- the Montagues and the Capulets.  (Editor's Note:   Not the Hatfields and McCoys!!)

Earlier on in the adventures of SweetHeart and "Geezer the Kid," we attended a performance of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, another outdoor performance in the forest, beautifully done using the ambient setting as a sort of "character" in that well-known Shakespearean comedy.  (We sat in the "Royal Box" and were revered and applauded by the more rustic attendees!  Please don't take offense!)  

Well, golly, whether we have become cultured individuals as a result of our, now, intimate relationship with Will and other prominent literary figures, it matters little, 

I suppose....  But I am beginning to use such terms as "forsooth" more frequently in my everyday discourse, and "Fie Upon You"...   I guess that's better than the nasty words used by many angry combatants in modern society.  Whither goest thou?...

In any event, I give thanks to my legions of faithful readers and devotees...  both of you!??  And I take my leave with this thought:   (Soon) Comes the Winter of Our Discontent, Made Glorious Summer by This Son of (Milwaukee...  with profound apologies to purists!!).  (We plan to hire a snow removal crew so that I don't have to strain my aging back!!)  A Final Thought:  We hope that Winter takes an early leave of us, but looking forward to our next encounter with high culture in whatever season it presents itself!!

(Dedicated to all who seek cultural outlets in this increasingly bizarre and lunatic society in which we find ourselves, with apologies to those who may mistakenly and undeservedly believe they are included, or lumped!!)

Humbly Submitted 08-27-2023...  Joel K.