Mission Statement

From he who is called to utter non-sequiturs and non-starters; and who knows why?

For those who may not know the substance of "The Cocktail Party" by TSE, I will attempt to here recall it, having read it only once probably 10 years ago. But unlike most plays, it totally took me by surprise. It starts out in a common manner most rude about a small circle of friends who are being hosted by a couple whose marriage is most dysfunctional. So far, so much the usual. In fact its prologuish note is the predominant note of almost every contemporary genre of art in the Western world. Scratch almost any sitcom and you will, to mis-phrase H.L. Mencken, find the fundamentals of decay, disorder, and dysharmonics; everybody dissing everybody every minute of the media day. Is there no remedy?

And why does this nest of brooding vipers not even reflect "real life"; and why does art not imitate "real life" according to the apologetics of the wise? Working decade after decade in a hospital, what strikes me again and again is how little the actual course of life follows, shall we say, "House" or "LA Law." Life unfortunately imitates art in various crude ways; just as most "culture" while being produced exclusively by people (?) for the purposes of social control, has almost every individual by the throat, so it is that culture provides its own vultures too, as a snake devouring its own self starting at the lowest end. Anal,eh? The seeds and eggs of destruction are both hidden in our cosy "love nests." (Never go to bed with the cockatrises) (Or ligers)

But I editorialize....

To be simplistic about it, the tale of TSE probably reflected his own considerable marital difficulties and the problems of diffidence (dry art, dry salvages?) towards those who needs be closest to our hearts. One of the younger female guests, an aspiring actress, Celia, who is being wooed by a future producer, becomes disillusioned by the unhealthy relationships even among the wisest among the elite. Act 2 is, I believe, a reunion in which it is discovered that Celia has forsaken all and gone to a savage isle as a missionary; and suffered a martyr's death most cruel and quite graphic by Eliot's standards. By Act 3, the marriage has been mysteriously restored by Celia's postmortem influence. This is not a story of Christian conversion, although by the time this was written, Eliot had suffered exactly that, tho we know not whether this was by desire for restoration of culture and tradition, v.s. actual contacts with a God not just literal but hyper-real. But it seems to be an uncharacteristic portrayal of the source of all love and truth and higher orders impressing themselves upon a lower order--i.e. most of us and I certainly would include myself.

My life has had the characteristic of self-centeredness and bookishness. And perhaps this was also the case with Eliot and his first tortured wife. There is even a movie that takes Eliot to task for, well, repressing her and institutionalizing her. Yet the strongest influences on my soul have not been philo-sophers or soph-ists or soph-o-mores (less would be more in the latter case) but those who have sacrificed such things and agendas as these for, well, relationships; the more substantial and genuine and durable type above all. Not sublimating, as Freud saw relationships and art itself; but another form of sub-sumation, in the Percian sense of the word--see previous blogs about Percy, Walker.

I realize I have not blogger'd for over 10 days now. However this is not because I want to sacrifice but because I have been inundated with doctor-patient relationships. So much so that I had to put aside my Advanced Cardiac Life Support re-cert and many other things as well, including any exercise. But the other major relationship that is taking a major turn in my life is the imminent departure of our son Mark to the mission field. He will live in Bangkok but will be going to remote areas while learning one or two new languages. As most of you know, Thailand is not stable any more, and there are riots, some deadly, and bombings going on in Bangkok as I speak.

The advent of Skype into our lives couldn't have come at a more opportune moment!!!! (insert grin emoticon here)

He will be leaving next Tuesday, and hopes to be working with children. He leaves behind a significant other, namely Allison Ryan, who writes for our local paper. So for those who pray, please do!!! For them both, for safety and to be Spirit-led, if I may use an overused but significant phrase.

I will come forth with more thoughts this weekend, if I have time. (Prognosis:Guarded)