Friday, April 13, 2018

Father & daughter pass by .... & curious me

Statistics often are boring, so I suppose it is boring to attempt to visualize the more than thirty-eight million individuals who passed through Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport during 2017. Whatever .... here are a few who were waiting to collect their luggage about five in the afternoon on Tuesday. Notice the blonde standing sort of in the center with her back to me? Me is Fram, who took the photograph. That blonde young lady is one of my two daughters. She is just as camera shy as I am, perhaps even more so, but there absolutely is no reason for her to be that way. She has her mother's looks and is an authentic doll. She was on her way from Portland, Oregon, to New York City. We met, we ate lunch, we talked, we hugged .... we went our separate ways.

Two songs today, with variations of one ....
Kerry Livgren & Kansas .... "Dust in the Wind"
Hans Zimmer & orchestra .... "Chevaliers de Sangreal"
Both are beautiful ....
Both are magical ....
Both are mystical ....
See if you do not agree ....

By the way .... winter is very reluctant to depart this year. Six to twelve inches of snow are predicted to fall between Friday evening and Sunday morning, with forty mile-per-hour winds driving it. Many spring storms come out of the southwest, and are notorious for heavy snowfall .... long live winter ....

That is all it was: Curiosity

Among my names should be the word "curious."

For whatever reason, I will be reading something or watching something and feel an insatiable desire to know more about it. That is exactly what happened to me a few days ago while watching a 1964 episode of the Western classic, "Gunsmoke," on television.

For one reason or another -- mostly because the television show was before my time -- I never saw the original broadcasts of "Gunsmoke."

For one reason or another -- mostly because of the dismal nature of most television programming today -- I have taken to watching occasional reruns of the show featuring James Arness as Matt Dillon, Amanda Blake as Kitty and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams.

In this particular episode entitled, "The Glory and the Mud," Matt is talking to Jack Dakota, an old, retired lawman who had just closed his Wild West show and come to Dodge City looking for a "lost love" from long ago.

There is a "retarded" man in the show who goes by the name Cloudy. I suppose in this age of political correctness, I should refer to him as a "mentally challenged" man .... but, I was taught as a journalist to write as briefly and as tightly as possible to save space, and the word retarded is considerably shorter than the words mentally challenged. Chalk it up to knowing which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Matt and Dakota and Cloudy have been talking. When Cloudy leaves, Dakota says: "You know, he's lucky in a way."

Matt: "How do you mean?"

Dakota: "He'll always be a child. Not like the rest of us. Man once, child twice."

The words, "man once; child twice," struck me. I recalled words to that effect in William Shakespeare's play,"Hamlet," but had no idea of their origin. Sure enough, in Act II, Scene II, Hamlet says: "Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts."

Rosencrantz: "Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old man is twice a child."

From there, a further look .... Biblical? I wondered.

Not really, I discovered.

There are references to the saying/concept among the Old Greeks, noteably Plato around 400 BC ("The old man then, as seems, will be twice a child.") and Sophocles around 450 BC (".... old as he is now, and train again, for the aged man is once again a child.").

It was at that point the search ended .... for now, anyway ....

I suppose I always will be wondering about the who, what, where, when, why and how of those words, although the only purpose in knowing the answers would be to satisfy my curiosity.

Those words:
"Man once; child twice ...."  
Something to ponder, I guess ....
But not something to look forward to, I think ....




6 comments:

Anita said...

Wonderful photo Fram, of your daughter!So nice to see daily activity taken by you-Wish we could see more!

That serie..Gunsmoke..is that the old one with Festus in??If it is its a great serie

All in all its good to see you blogging!



Wish you a happy weekend Fram

Anita

Fram Actual said...

I think "wonderful" might be too glamorous a word to use for this photograph, Anita, but I appreciate your thought and your sentiment .... thank you. Incidentally, she did not know I took it and I did not tell her later, either.

As for seeing more of my daily activities, for the most part they are dull and boring and uneventful. I suppose life for me might become a bit more interesting when summer arrives, but winter lingers on and on and on. If the weather prediction is correct, my Saturday will be spent by watching snow fall and my Sunday will be utilized by shoveling it .... ufffff ....

Yes, the episodes of "Gunsmoke" that I see are old .... very old. The one mentioned in my post was made in 1964, and the series ran on television only from 1955-1975. Before that, it had been a radio show for a few years. I think just about everyone who was a regular on the show is long dead and buried. Many of the old television programs were, in their own way, "morality plays" and offered lessons about life and living which are well worth watching and contemplating.

I think my weekend will be occupied by snow and more snow, but I will try to make it a happy one, never-the-less.

Take care, Anita, stay safe and thank you. I enjoy your company very much ....

A Cuban In London said...

How apposite one of your clips was! :-) You met your daughter, you talked, you ate and then... you both became dust in the wind temporarily. :-)

Greetings from London.

Anita said...

HEIA Fram😊Jeg tror du undervurderer deg selv
.Kjedeligt!!!!Langt derifra.Det er jo det som er gĂžy med deg..nĂ„r du viser bilder fra ditt private liv😊Ja for vi er jo alle nyskjerrige pĂ„ deg😊
Snart kommer vĂ„ren hos deg ogđŸŒżđŸŒ·
Her i
Bergen er det godt og varmt med 20 varmegrader..Nesten for varmt!Ha det fint da sþte deg😊

Fram Actual said...

I almost always aim to please, CiL, and I frequently attempt to insert a bit of "graveyard humor" in my posts when it seems appropriate .... although anything which appeared in this post was purely coincidental to the circumstances of the circumstances .... hmmmm ....

In any case, I am pleased you made it here and glad that you wrote a comment for me. Thank you, CiL .... you really should be posting more often, you know .... I miss reading you ....

Fram Actual said...

I usually am accused of overestimating myself, Anita, so it is nice to read that you think otherwise -- and, I do hope that I am fun to be around both in person and upon the sea of blogs.

I am not so sure spring will arrive at all during 2018. Right now, Minnesota is on track to become one of the coldest and one of the snowiest Aprils on record. It often is said in this neck of the woods that there are only two seasons here: Winter and summer.

Yes, my snow shovel and I will have a very good time this weekend .... of that I am absolutely certain because a howling wind outside is telling me so.

Thank you, Anita .... you know how to make me smile.

P.S. I hope you are not too disappointed that I did not reply in Norwegian -- I am too sleepy this evening ....

Something special ....