Watch Out Bartlett's Here I Come

While I am not completely sure, I do not believe that you have to be dead to be quoted in Bartlett's Famous Quotations. I feel pretty confident that there have been many folks whose words were included while they were very much alive. I”m pretty sure that such worthy notables like Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II were surely added to Bartlett's tome while they were still with us.

I would never dare to include my words of wisdom among those I just named, nor would I put myself on the plain as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Howard Hughes or Hugh Hefner. Put me on the list of those who agree that these people, along with Alice Toklas, Carrie Nation and
Shirley Temple-Black all had some important things to say and they should have been written down for the generations to come. I know that more than once I've thrown an extra log on the Internet to see if Van Gogh said anything that I might find of interest, as I recall, he did.

I told a fellow outside of a local church once, “The best things are learned on sidewalks, at dinner tables and in grocery store lines.” With all humbleness, I would like to believe that my statement just might be worthy of a place in the archives maintained by the folks at Bartlett's. Frankly, I don't look for them to pick this line up and call me for confirmation that I did, indeed say it.
There is truth in the statement though. I've learned many things about family history at the dinner table. It was there that I learned family secrets from three and four generations before me.

While standing on the sidewalk I have learned funny jokes. I learned a very important lesson from a four year old who shared with me what the red hand on the crosswalk sign means. (Now he's seen 21 years in the rear view mirror I wonder if he remembers teaching me.) I've learned of the illnesses of friends and their condition while standing on concrete that ran along side a city street.

On the sidewalk I've seen parades go by and it was there that I thought of the quote made by Will Rogers, Jr. who said, “We can't all be heroes because someone has to stand on the sidewalk and clap as they go by.” On sidewalks I've witnessed with joy and sorrow when tolerance of diversity works and fails.

Grocery store lines can be a place where a wealth of knowledge can be gleaned. I'm not talking about what can be read on the cover of the latest tabloid, but what you can learn from those standing in line with you.

About a year ago I was waiting in line at my local grocery store, I had placed my selections on the conveyor belt, provisions for my Sunday dinner, it was a horribly hot and very humid day and there was going to be no cooking in my apartment. The items were: Pickle Loaf, (Yes! Pickle Loaf, at least once a year.), Whole wheat bread with golden flax seed, a very small tomato, a pint of ice cream, (probably Chubby Hubby,) and Ginger Ale.

I heard the man standing behind me say, “Now you know, some folks around here and in fancier grocery stores would make snide remarks about your choices there, but think about it, you have all five of the basic food groups there.” I looked at the items on the belt and thought about there only being four food groups, but before I could say anything he went on, “you got meat, at least they claim pickle loaf has some meat in it, you have whole grain in your bread, a tomato, that's fruit or vegetable and you have ice cream, that's dairy. Then, my friend, you have soda, that's from the most important of the food groups, Junk.”

Before he could finish his statement his wife pushed the grocery cart abruptly into his hip and said, “You know what I've said about talking to strangers in the stores.”
He smiled at her and then continued, “you have all your needs met right there, everything found in once place, all a man needs with the exception of one thing,” he looked at me, then his wife, then me again, “you can't buy love here,” turning again to his wife he said, “can you dear?”

So Bartlett editors, hear my words and record them for posterity, “The best things are learned on sidewalks and at dinner tables and in grocery store lines.”

Seeing the Details in the Classics

I love old movies, the classics, the not so classic, the obscure, I just like the qualities of old movies. For one, they don't move as quickly as movies do today, there usually isn't a lot of arguing in them and if there is it is brief and then the repair is quick to come also. I appreciate the fact that there may be a murder in the story, but unlike today's television shows and movies, I don't have to watch a Crime Scene Investigator or Coroner split the deceased open and look for clues. (I have the willies just thinking about it.) I like to see the use of simple stories that warm the heart, even if they do have a sad ending, for example, The Glen Miller Story. I love the movie Penny Serenade, it's heart rending, but a loving tale. One of my all time favorites is Mrs. Miniver, this 1942 story set in England has all the things that make a movie great, a haunting musical theme, a simple rivalry, the beauty of a rose and the juxtaposition of the second world war going on in the background.

There are the classics like Casablanca, if you ever have a chance to see it, look past the story and look at the background, the movement of light and darkness, the same holds true for the movie Algiers. The true art of these movies is not just in the story, but in the production values as well.
Movie makers make mistakes sometimes, and often they are blatant and sometimes they are so minuscule that they are easy to miss, no one ever notices. A case in point is the movie Double Indemnity, an example of the film noir genre, it has a little flaw in it that most people don't even think about, in this movie Barbara Stanwyck hides in the hall of an apartment building behind the door of Fred Mc Murry's flat. When he opens the door he cannot see her because the door opens into the hall. It seems that the fire code generally accepted around the United States after the Great Chicago Fire requires that doors from hall into apartment open into the apartment, the same holds true with houses. It is standard building practice I understand. Of course, in this movie it is important that the door work the other way or Ms. Stanwyck would be standing out in the open and thus it would ruin the story.

One evening after having watched this movie I couldn't sleep, so I was working on trying to find that, “happy place,” that we are often told to look for when our minds are working overtime. I thought back to the church of my teen-hood and I saw myself standing in the middle of the sanctuary and I gazed upon each of the stained glass windows, hoping that I could find some peacefulness in them and by doing so maybe whatever was troubling my mind would be abated. The window to the east was the famous picture of Jesus holding an armful of lilies, the portrayal of him as, “The Lily of the Valley,” (think of the film Elmer Gantry here,) on the west was the picture that has been printed on so many funeral home paper fans, that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd complete with a lamb in his arms. Then I looked to the south where the light was coming in the strongest, the window on the south of the church was the very well known picture of Jesus knocking at the door. I had looked at the window a thousand times, or so it would seem. No one had ever pointed out to me that in this famous picture there is no doorknob on the door.
The painting made into stained glass is based on the Biblical text from Revelation 3:20, “Look at me, I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and you open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you.” I didn't realize until several years after I had sat looking at the window that the reason why there is no knob on the outside of the door is because then Jesus can't force his way in, he can't jiggle the handle, he can't pick the lock, you have to let him in. Come on, admit it, you've had moments like this where the light finally comes on and you really, “get it.”

What I really learned form this is that the building code that God uses is no knobs, doesn't matter which way the door opens. Oh, and lighting, stained glass works best with good lighting. Just like in Casablanca.