I am reading Don Quixote by Cervantes. It is quite a hoot. But, it is not an easy read. It’s like reading a foreign language. As a matter of fact, it is a foreign language: Spanish. Old Spanish translated into English. If you squint your eyes and hold your nose just right, you can almost tease out the meaning. It turns out the Don is quite insane—crazy as 9 loons, as they say. He is always tilting at windmills and at every Inn he passes by on the road he thinks it is a Castle holding a damsel in distress who needs rescuing since he is a knight errant of the “ill-favored face” and that his quest is to follow that dream. Halfway through the book he meets another band of wanderers who spin quite a tale of their own about a cat named Anselmo and his friend Lothario whom he entreats to test his wife’s fidelity. What could go wrong? Sancho Panza rides along with the Don on his ass for companionship and to provide comic relief.
When I was a young man working as a factotum at the rubber factory in Rubbertown, one of my co-workers used to refer to me as, “That Don Quixote-looking motherfucker!”
“Why do you call me that, Ernie?” I asked.
“Because you wear a beard, and you sort of look like him, and you are always tilting at windmills.”
In his Critique of Dialectical Reason, (1960) Jean-Paul Sartre asks the following questions: 1) Why is violence so universal a feature of human experience, especially in politics? And 2) What becomes of man’s freedom in a world where human beings are constantly threatened by what he called the “practico-inert” (alienation)?
Example: A motorist is caught in a traffic jam created by the increased availability of cars whose original intention was to enable men to move about more freely. Human beings are increasingly and inevitably held prisoner by their own creations.
In economics, this would be an example of diminishing returns. A concept I learned in the 5th grade, which struck me like a thunderbolt and has stuck with me ever since.
Another concept I learned a couple of years later in the 7th grade, was the concept of manifest destiny. Again, this was like a thunderbolt out of the blue, but I think it might have set me on the wrong path for years to come. If you don’t think that schools were indoctrinating students in the 1950s you are sadly mistaken. But I digress….
In Sanskrit, the word Kamala means Lotus Flower. The Lotus is a symbol of purity and the simultaneity of cause and effect. Out of the mud rises the fragrant Lotus Flower. This is exactly the metaphor needed at this time in this place. Kamala, the Lotus Flower, rises from the slime and muck of Donald Trump and his ilk in triumph and exaltation. Go ahead, Kamala!
I have been reading Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs – A Tragic Farce, in the service of a play that I am writing called, The Tragedy of the Bull. Ionesco because he is a master of the Theater of the Absurd. Absurd because my play is existential. Existential in the sense that life is meaningless and man’s relationship to life is absurd. I often read other plays when I am writing for inspiration. Now, here is where the tricky part comes in. This play was written in 1950. I have never read it before. Many eerie similarities are revealed in The Chairs that are relevant to my life and my play. For instance, here is a bit of dialogue from The Tragedy of the Bull:
OLD MAN
Do you believe in coincidence, Maria?
MARIA
I have heard of coincidences, senor, but no, I don’t really believe in them.
OLD MAN
Neither do I. But I do believe in synchronicity. I connect the dots and look for patterns and when I see them, I pay attention. They are like signposts guiding my way. And that is what ultimately led me here. To you. Tonight.
MARIA
What are you talking about?
OLD MAN
I have a picture of Silvia Morales in my apartment that was painted by my friend Diane Kahlo.
MARIA
Oh, that is a coincidence, Old Man.
OLD MAN
You must let me march with you. I will carry the portrait of Silvia Morales in the parade while marching by your side.
MARIA
Si. I think it is a good idea senor. We will march together.
The main character in my play is named Old Man. The main character in The Chairs is named Old Man. The conversation between the Old Man and Maria is about coincidence and synchronicity. That is what I found to be strange about some of the references in The Chairs besides the fact the two main characters have the same name. There are other points of synchronicity.
Such as: The Old Man in the Chairs claims to be a general factotum. He makes a running joke of it as if he is an actual general. Part of the essence of the absurd is the contradictory construction of the language. Words used together that have the opposite meanings. Here’s where the coincidence comes in. For years I have claimed to be a “factotum” as a joke. I put it in my bios, and it is on my Facebook page. I originally got the idea from a book I read by Charles Bukowski entitled, Factotum. There is also a movie based on the book of the same title starring Matt Dillon. I, of course, identified with the main character and to a certain extent Charles Bukowski himself and I adopted the name “factotum” for myself. Years ago.
What else? There are other points of synchronicity that I will reference, although the whole play seems oddly familiar. First, the Old Man says, “It’s all a marvelous dream.” This is the main theme of The Tragedy of the Bull. Most of the play is a dream sequence The Old Man is having while he dies. One of my characters says, “Truth and illusion, Ron, you don’t seem to know the difference.” This indicates that what we are seeing might be a dream or an illusion.
The Old Man says, “I’m proud of it…proud and humble.”
Another one of my stock phrases is, “I’m right happy, humble, and proud to be here…” I say this whenever I am called upon to make a speech. I love the contradictory paradoxical nature of the construction of it. How can you be proud and humble at the same time? Brilliant! Now, I stole this saying directly from a past governor of Texas who always began his speeches, “I am right happy, humble, and proud to be here tonight.” Governor John Connely. When I first heard him say that I was tickled pink. I’m not sure he realized the irony of it, but I sure did and I have been using it ever since. For years.
The Old Man says, “In order to forget I went in for sports…for mountain climbing. I wanted to travel, I wanted to cross the river, they burned my bridges.” I was never one for sports but I did like the sport of Mountain climbing. I have done quite a lot of hiking and I have claimed some modest mountains. On my bucket list has always been MT. Kilimanjaro. Traveling has also been my passion and I have traveled extensively around the world. And lastly, I have crossed many rivers. I have lived for years along the Ohio and the Delaware Rivers.
Coincidence? I think not. Like Maria, I don’t believe in coincidence. But I do believe in Synchronicity. After three points of synchronicity are chalked up on the board, I see a pattern and from that pattern, I derive a meaning. It is perhaps the only meaning I find in a meaningless universe.
Do you see this image? This is a picture of a student shot dead by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio. I remember when this happened, and I can tell you it was a dark day in America. What were the students doing? They were protesting the war in Vietnam. It was largely because of these protests that the war was brought to an end.
Fast forward to today. We have protests all over America, indeed the world, of the war Israel is waging against the Palestinians. It is not antisemitic to protest the slaughter of thousands of innocent women and children and other noncombatants. This slaughter is inhumane and tantamount to genocide, regardless of what the U.S. Government is saying. It should be protested and attention must be paid!
We see police action and the National Guard being called up in some states to quell these protests. This must stop! We do not want another Kent State. I understand that we have to support our allies, and Israel is an ally, but this needless slaughter of the innocents must stop! It goes against American values, and it goes against my values. I stand with the protesting students.
Production of the Glass Menagerie at the Laura Peles Theatre. NYC 2010 Photo by the authorThe Glass Menagerie Starring Judith Ivy Photo by the author
In a conversation with my granddaughter, Summer, who just turned 28, a magical number by any stretch, she was telling me about a book she found at the Fat Rabbit. Now, I am a sucker for used bookstores myself, and I was infected by her enthusiasm. The book she so proudly declaimed as she pulled it from her bookbag was Tennessee Williams’, The Glass Menagerie. Imagine my surprise and happiness. The Glass Menagerie I told her is one of my favorite plays of all time. Hers too, as it turns out. I said, “You know, I have always been in love with long distance.” “I know, Big Daddy,” she shyly answered, not realizing it was a line from the play. I was lucky enough to see a production of it on Broadway a few years ago in New York. It was a wonderful production. It hit me later that the Birthday card I had given her had an image of a unicorn on it. The central symbol of the play. One of Laura’s glass animals was a unicorn representing her fragility. That gave me a chill as another moment of synchronicity had arrived. It made me happy to see Summer so excited to embrace for the first time a piece of theatre that I loved and knew so well.
I’ve been watching the James Gray New York Collection on the Criterion Channel. I can’t believe how good they are. I’ve seen a couple in the past like The Immigrant and We Own the Night, and I remember them to have been quite excellent. I don’t know how I missed some of these other little gems like Little Odessa and The Yards, which I watched last night. Outstanding performances by an ensemble cast including Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix Charlize Theron, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, and Ellen Burstyn. I will continue to watch the rest of the collection. I enjoy the character-driven stories taking place in a city that I love, New York, which has a character all its own.
Ghost Dog 