If you were to visit a room such as this, you could put your thoughts and prayers in it…such as “Let us have a new Spiritual Guide”, or “Help me be a nice person”, or ‘Keep me safe from Dangerous activities”, or “Give me a lot of Luck”, or “Do not let the Charlatans win the next election”…thoughts and prayers like those. (You do not need to waste your time being concerned about Guns & Bump Stocks; because Congress & the Supreme Court has thought & prayed about those matters to death.)
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( Ed. Note: I Have added a new category to The Notes: ‘Memoiresque’…sort of a looking back…in hopes of finding a way to make sense of it all…)
‘Memoiresque’…This time contemplating the word: “PICK”…
I remember, when I was a child, I heard foreign monks were searching for the new and re-born Dalai Lama. I was glad when they found someone – other than me – to pick to do the job. I remember thinking I did not want to live in that strange temple and have to learn another language…and sit around on the floor and pray all day. I also remember it would have been nice, though, to be considered somebody special.
And along that line I remember – once again, as a young boy – when I was dressed up like Hopalong Cassidy, I overheard my father exclaim to my mother how much money Bill Boyd must be making on all his Hopalong toy guns and lunch boxes and hats and cap guns and holsters – all of which I was sporting at the time…and how surprised I was that Hopalong was make pretend…and then I thought I hoped nobody would pick me to be a movie or tv star to be a cowboy and I’d have to learn to ride a horse…horses sort of scared me at the time. Although, I must admit I could draw pretty quick.
…And then there came a time when I had to go to confession before I could sup on the Lord.…maybe six or seven years old, I was…I remember standing in line trying to think up some sins so I could make up a really good one…”Swore once or twice…disobeyed my mother three times”…that sort of thing…then I came up with a true one, and I told the Priest “I picked on my younger brother 3 times…there was a unholy silence in the booth..finally the priest roared…”You picked on your brother? There is enough fighting and war going on in this world and we do not need you adding to the problems! That will be ten Hail Marys! And never pick on your brother again!” …and I never did, nor did I pick on any one else’s brother again – either. To the best of my knowledge. So, this church thing can’t be all bad.
…And then, a couple years later…I was glad when my military unit – The 136 Field Service infantry group was not picked for active duty in Vietnam. Our unit Commander, a one eyed Colonel Redman, had volunteered us to go; but thanks to God the Army sent another unit (by mistake) instead. This was good news for the Colonel, though unknown to him – because Private Dick (Who was from Queens, by the way – and you know what people can be like from Queens) had taken a $12,000 collection to put a hit on the Colonel if we were shipped out & over. (…The Colonel, himself, would not have been shipped to the conflict overseas – because of his one eyed thing) …
Then… as time moved on, there was “the Quick Pick”… the new New York State lotto…50 cents a pop ….the second week it came out I won $200…My friend Stan Hoerr, who was a math whizz…even taught Calculus and such – told me it was the worst thing to happen to me because I would play the lotto the rest of my life and lose way more than the $200 I had just won… so, two months later I won $2,000 and Stan played the lotto every week for the rest of his life. As for me, I’m still picking the numbers…waiting for the ‘Big One” …maybe Stan was right after all – maybe not. Maybe I’ll lose in the end. Who do you think was right? You pick.
We have an election coming up and if “We” pick the wrong guy, there is no Dalai Lama, no Hopalong, no “Hail Marys”, no 136th Field Service Unit, no Amount of Lotto money gonna save us from ourselves this time around.
Two quotes:
- ”Jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton/ got’s to jump down turn around pick a bale a day…oh Lordy gots to jump down turn around pick a bale a cotton..” -Leadbelly, Song, 1930
- “Pick guitar/ fill fruit jar and be gay-ou/ Son of a gun we gonna have fun on the bay-ou” -Hank Williams, “Jambalaya”, 1952.
Thats’s it for the week, this week…and a fond “Hello” to Andy, wherever you are…
Deep thought of the day: “You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.” Saturday Night Live Skit circa 1990. “The good old days of SNL.”