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The simple folk

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(“What do the simple folk do?” is a song from the 1960s Broadway musical hit Camelot.” Guinevere and King Arthur discuss the lives of commoners and what they do “when they’re blue.” Guinevere notes, “They obviously outshine us at turning tears to mirth, and tricks a royal highness is minus from birth.”  Arthur’s final conclusion, after listing several things the simple folk do is, “They sit around and wonder what royal folk would do.”

Dr. Frank Crane suggests those not burdened with noblesse oblige do quite well—because it doesn’t occur to them that they should be living—-)

A MISERABLE LIFE

Poverty is a point of view.

It all depends upon what you are used to, and upon what you see others enjoying

The average realistic author who seeks to harrow the reader ‘ s feelings with his account of the wretchedness of existence is simply performing the trick of bringing a man with one set of tastes into the life of a man with another set of tastes .

The king deceives himself if he thinks the cobbler unhappy, for the   cobbler has never been king.

The poet is mistaken when he imagines the life of a rough teamster to be miserable, for the teamster is a teamster and not a poet.

Leaving actual pain out of account, most lives are reasonably content  so long as they are what they are and do not view themselves from the point of what they are not .

Much of the description of the hollowness and emptiness of existence  we find in George Gissing or Upton Sinclair and their ilk might be thus parodied:

“Little do we suspect the sorrows of the poor. The days crept on with leaden feet for   Archibald Vandergold. There was no golf nor lawn tennis. Only the full routine of behaving himself and earning a living.

“In his little flat there was only one servant and she was absent  Thursdays.

“There were no mistresses nor chorus girls to eat lobster and drink  Veuve Cliquot with him at 1 a. m. No, only one wife and a child.

“He had to reach for the bread at table himself, and pass his own plate when he wanted another piece of ham. No butler stood behind his chair and whisked away his plate every time he took another spoonful of beans. Like all the dreary bourgeois to whose class he belonged, he did his own buttling.

“To arise in the morning and select your own collar, tie your own tie, and stoop over to put on your own shoes until the temples throb with the constrained attitude, to have no valet to turn on the hot water for your bath, but to be compelled to handle the faucet yourself; to go out to the dining room and drink your coffee instead of having James bring it to you as you lie abed; to ride downtown on a tramway instead of taking a morning gallop upon your thoroughbred; to have no polo ponies, no private yacht, not even to belong to a club; to have no box at the opera where you can wear your dress suit and loll about and converse with duchesses and millionaires’ daughters in Robert W. Chambers’s* dialogues; such is the life of that submerged class which the reader of the average magazine society yarn hates to think about.

“Little do we suspect the sorrows of the poor. Archibald Vandergold felt his humiliation. His bathtub was not of porphyry. His cigarette case was not gold with his monogram on it; it was leather and carried the advertisement of a coal dealer.

“He actually went to church Sundays with his wife and child and not to a gilt restaurant with another man’s wife.

“The darkness of his narrow existence can be imagined when it is added that he actually liked his wife, liked to go to church, enjoyed being decent, and was interested in his business.

“And, pardon my vulgarity in saying it, but the whole fetid truth must be told—the poor wretch did not own an automobile!”

*American science fiction and historical fiction writer 1865-1933)

Racing : Crossing over

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Both of the major auto racing bodies won’t return to the track until NBC has time for something other than the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean wheels have not been turning. Several drivers from both bodies are looking the next steps in their careers.

Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks (Trackhouse made headlines a few weeks ago by buying Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR operation) doesn’t seem to lack ambition. A few days ago he told Sirius XM’s Dave Moody he’s interested in fielding a car in the Indianapolis 500.  “I don’t think there’s anything that’s off the table.” He says he’s already had some discussions about how to do that.

Former NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who’s been racing on INDYCAR road courses this year, will see how he likes driving one of those cars on an oval later this month, perhaps at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’d love to drive in the Indianapolis 500 next year. He says he might not run the full INDYCAR schedule next year if the overall test goes well. He’d use the time to prepare for the 500. The last NASCAR driver to run the 500 was Kurt Busch, who finished sixth in 2014.  Busch is still active on the NASCAR circuit although the sale of the Ganassi operation has left him unsure of what seat he’ll be in next year.

Another driver seeing what it’s like to turn laps only turning left is Romain Grosjean, who moved to INDYCAR from Formula 1 this year.  He ran 168 laps at Worldwide Technology Raceway, across the river from St. Louis, a few days ago and learned oval racing is harder than it might seem. “Everyone who thinks it’s easy to run ovals is absolutely mistaken,” he said afterwards, also admitting he enjoyed the experience.  He was about a half-second of the day’s fast time on the 1.25-mile track posted by oval veteran Colton Herta.

Ed Carpenter is courting F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg but the discussions are in the very preliminary stage.  Hulkenberg is a test driver for Aston Martin. He’s 33, a veteran of 179 starts but has never had a podium finish. His last full season was 2019 when he drove for Renault. This isn’t Hulkenberg’s first day with INDYCAR.  He talked with Ganassi when he saw himself being dropped by Renault and maintains an interest in INDYCAR.  He seems to be a fit for Ed Carpenter Racing because Carpenter runs only on the ovals. This year, Conor Daly has driven the car on road courses. Carpenter tells Racer he thinks Hulkenberg is interested at least in running an INDYCAR test.

And finally—The BC39 midget race on the quarter-mile infield dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Thursday, August 19.  Crossing over from 3700-pound NASCAR vehicles to run midgets on dirt will be defending NASCAR champ Chase Elliott, who has run less than a handful of midget race before, and Conor Daly, a regular INDYCAR driver who has competed in the first two BC39 races and has midget experience beyond that.

NASCAR and INDYCAR return to action next Sunday. NASCAR is on the road course at Watkins Glen. INDYCAR races on the streets of Nashville.

(FORMULA 1)—A surprise winner at the Grand Prix of Hungary last weekend—Estaban Ocon, driving for Alpine-Renault, got his first F1victory but chaos during and after the race altered the final finish and the points standings.

Sebastian Vettel, driving for Aston Martin, finished second but was disqualified when race officials could not take a required fuel sample from his car. His team is appealing the ruling.

The DQ moved Lewis Hamilton to second place and expanded his points lead to eight over Max Verstappen.

The chaos began on the first turn of the first lap—a six-car mash-up triggered when Hamilton teammate Valtteri Botas late-braked and rear-ended Lando Norris who hit Verstappen. Verstappen’s damaged car was repaired during the red-flag period caused by the crash but he was able to climb back only to ninth.

F1 takes its usual summer break for most of August. Its next race Will be August 29, the Belgian Grand Prix.

(ROBIN)—A different kind of “crossing over” is facing one of the sport’s greatest reporters.  A lot of racing fans have seen Robin Miller on various racing television shows or doing pit-walks before races on television.  He’s been one of the greats in reporting on INDYCAR for decades.  Robin is dealing with cancer and leukemia and has penned a sort of farewell for Racer magazine, where he’s been a columnist for about ten years. Before that he covered racing for the Indianapolis Star for more than thirty years.

A couple of years ago, several past winners of the Indianapolis 500 gathered in the Media Center to honor Miller for 50 years of covering the Speedway. Among them where two of his favorites: Mario Andretti and A. J. Foyt.

This is part of what he has written for readers of Racer:

Facing your mortality isn’t something to think about every day or dwell on, because you’re alive and death isn’t in your daily mindset.

But when cancer and leukemia decide to gang up on you then everything changes, and you are suddenly lining up in a heat race with The Grim Reaper. Might be a 50-lapper, could be an enduro or you might get lucky and run for a year or two.

My situation is pretty cut and dried. There is no cure for my illness but it can be treated, and I’ve spent lots of hours at the clinic in Greenwood, Indiana with an awesome staff of doctors and nurses.

The outpouring of good wishes, prayers, positive thoughts and support from RACER nation is beyond humbling. I never dreamed that a guy who writes stories about race drivers could impact people’s lives and instill so much passion. I’ve had the greatest life anyone can imagine, and I’ve been lucky enough to share it with the fans.

Jim Hurtubise befriends me when I’m 17 and stealing beer for him at sprint car races, I’m stooging on his Indy 500 crew in 1968, then I’m covering USAC and IndyCar by 1969 for The Indianapolis Star, I’m working on Bill Finley’s pit crew by 1971 and driving him crazy by 1972, I’ve got a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli thanks to my friendship with Art Pollard. I’m writing a weekly column about USAC by 1974 and a year later I’ve become the fourth Bettenhausen brother because I bought Merle’s midget…

. It was a great time, pounding up and down the highway with Timmy Coffeen, Bobby Grim Jr. and Tony Lee Bettenhausen. We didn’t have any money, but damn what an experience as we ran Little Springfield, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Eldora and some bullrings that were pretty sketchy but always an adventure.

Yet it was my job that gave me such an entrée into IndyCar history and such an education.

I idolized Herk, Parnelli, A.J., Rutherford, Mario, Gurney, the Unsers and Johncock and by the mid-1970s I was pals with all of them and it was the golden age of racing for my money. They were the modern-day gladiators and revered universally…

I almost died two weeks ago with a nasty infection and fever but my little sister, her best friend and a neighbor saved my life and rushed me to the hospital where three nurses also came to my rescue. I’ve put on 10 pounds and got my appetite back after three months, and my goal is to get to the triple-header at the Brickyard next month.

But I have to tell you about the amazing people who have stepped up with generosity that’s immeasurable.

Randy Bernard sent my sister an American Express gold card and said I wasn’t allowed to pay anything in the way of bills. Indianapolis Colts owner Jimmy Irsay did something that can’t even be imagined, but showed how big his heart is and it’s beyond humbling. Ditto for 1970 Indiana Mr. Basketball David Shepherd, whose generosity is off the chart. A.J. has called several times asking if I needed financial help and The Gas Man (Tom Sneva) has offered whatever I need. My best buds Steve Shunck, Larry Schmalfeldt, Feeno, Billy Shepherd, Davey Shep, Ralf Frey, Billy Benner, David Benner, Larry Walker, Bob Grim, John Mandlebaum, Al Freedman and Monk Palmore bring me lunch, dinner and hours of great conversation and they’ve rebuilt my condo, installed an electric staircase, built my sister a bed and kept me company daily. Nobody has more good friends than I do and I’m so… the word “lucky” isn’t appropriate. It’s beyond comprehension.

And my sister Diane has been here three months and I cannot begin to explain what an angel she’s been. I’d be lost without her mothering and nursing skills, along with her best friends Terri, Susie and Riney.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m at peace with whatever happens, be it a year or six months or six weeks or six hours. My plan is to move to Phoenix later this year because I want to watch the nephews and niece grow up and just peacefully pass on surrounded by my family, whenever it’s time…

But he says his first goal is to make it to the INDYCAR/NASCAR tripleheader at the Speedway later this month.

(Photo Credits: Grosjean–Chris Owens, IMS; Andretti, Miller, Foyt—Bob Priddy)

 

Another trip around the sun

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(We celebrated at our house a few days ago the completion of another trip around the sun, another anniversary of the birth of the compiler of these columns. Although ascending as gracefully as possible in the number of our years we shall not try to impress you with the number of these trips we have made. But it is enough that contemplating the total journey each year leads to increasing time spent reflecting on the places in life we have been and offering advice to those still early in their journeys—-as Dr. Frank Crane might have been doing when he told readers of Woman’s World in 1913:)

REMEMBER OLD AGE

In youth, one finds himself full of many forces, physical, intellectual, and emotional. He is a bundle of desires. He ought to be. It man’s life’s forces run rich in him. So he desires to make love, to get popularity, to play, to do great work, to see the marvels of the world, to amass knowledge and altogether give vent to the steam and electricity which nature has concealed in his makeup.

Hence, he gives himself to varied activities. By gratifying all these wants he becomes somewhat in the world.

But whether he is a real success or not depends not on how he give way to these desires but upon how he controls them. It is not the things he does and the things he gets that make him a great man; it is the residuary deposit that is left in his soul.

All of these pleasures of getting and doing have their place, but the real object of them is that they shall pass over into the higher values of character.

So it is pitiful to see the old man was once a sensualist, a vigorous merchant, a political leader, and how now has nothing left but regret—for his lost vitality. Had he understood the art of living he would have gained from his more active days a wealth of inner qualities of spiritual strength and beauty; and instead of old age leaving him poverty stricken of happiness, it would have left him with the harvest treasures of wisdom and joy in life.

Adopt the philosophy of Omar Khayyam, take for your gospel, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die,”  seek only “to get all the fun you can get out of life,” and you exhaust all your inner resources, and your old age will be that of a dyspeptic and a banquet.*

But begin in youth to resolutely choose the higher pleasures, to train yourself in independence from the domination of “things” and reliance upon the pleasures of beauty, thought, and love, and old age will come as the golden privilege of life.

It is a question of nobility versus meanness; it must be an ennobling and not a gloomy and narrow religion. Neither poverty nor riches matter; it all depends upon whether you are nobly poor or nobly rich. Sickness or health do not determine the temper of your old age; that is fixed by your being nobly feeble or nobly robust.

It is in old age that all of the higher truths of life shine undimmed by any deceiving circumstances. Then, if you are petty, selfish, egotistic, proud and small souled, there is nothing to conceal it. If you are patient, loyal, and full of love, it is apparent.

—-

*Although the quotation is often attributed to Khayyam, it actually is a combination of two verses from the Bible and also is found in the Book of Mormon:

Ecclesiastes 8:15—“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.”

Isaiah 22:13—“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”

2 Nephi 28:7– “Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.”

We have found a couple of quotes from Khayyam that might apply to Dr. Crane’s theme today:

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly-and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing,” and–

“Why ponder thus the future to foresee, and jade thy brain to vain perplexity? Cast off thy care, leave Allah’s plans to him – He formed them all without consulting thee.”

(Omar Khayyam 1048-1131) was a Persian astronomer, philosopher, poet, and mathematician.)

 

Racing: King of the Road, End of the Road, The Road Ahead

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Chase Elliott confirmed he’s this generation’s king of the road courses.  A long-time NASCAR owner’s exit raises issues of other exits ahead, a big team gets a big win, and a big name gets a new deal.

(NASCAR)—Chase Elliott led 24 of the last 25 laps at Road America last weekend to wrap up his seventh career road-racing victory.  Only Jeff Gordon with nine and Tony Stewart with eight have more victories when turning the steering wheel right as well as left.

The win on the four-mile long road course at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin was even more impressive because Elliott started 34th in the field of forty. He climbed to tenth in the first sixteen-lap stage, and was a front-row starter for the third stage.

It’s the seventh win in the last eight Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports (eight of the last nine if you throw in the All-Star race) and the tenth in this year’s twenty points-paying races.  Kyle Busch, who interrupted the recent Hendrick domination last week, came home third behind Christopher Bell. Both drive for Hendrick’s top competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Atlanta is the next designation for NASCAR, next weekend.

(THE END OF THE NASCAR ROAD)—Last week’s sale of Chip Ganassi Racing to Justin Marks’ Trackhouse Racing surprised just about everybody, including Ganassi, and raises questions about how much longer the major owner-names that have dominated the sport for decades will hang around.

Ganassi says he had no plans to sell his operations until Marks talked him into it.  Marks gets the whole Ganassi kit and caboodle for 2022. But more investment will be necessary before Daytona next year.  The cars that Ganassi is running this year won’t be used next year as NASCAR switches to its Next Gen car that is designed to be cheaper to build and run and to look more like the cars we see on the streets.  It appears that at least one of the two drivers now with Ganassi will not be retained—either Kurt Busch or Ross Chastain.  Trackhouse already fields a car for Daniel Suarez and will keep him next year.  Busch said at Elkhart Lake last weekend that he already is talking with Trackhouse about staying with the team.  His contract with Ganassi ends at the end of this year.  There have been reports that Busch also is being considered for a possible second car by 23XI racing, the Denny Hamlin/Michael Jordan team that runs Bubba Wallace now. The team, however, has only one charter this year.  Marks has said both Busch and Chastain are “under consideration” for the second Trackhouse car next year.

The Ganassi sale is a dramatic reminder that “Next Gen” might not only apply to cars.  Last year’s creation of 23XI Racing by Jordan and Hamlin was a first step in reshaping NASCAR ownerships with younger faces.  Hamlin, who will be 41 in November, is winless this year, and is running out of time to win a Cup championship, has followed Tony Stewart, 50, into transitioning from driver to owner (although not to owner-driver).  Stewart took half ownership in Haas Racing in 2008 and Stewart-Haas has four drivers in CUP this year: Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer. None has won a race this year and Harvick is the only one in position to make the playoff field—which will be set after only six more races.

Other top drivers are, or might be, moving into top positions in major teams.  Jeff Gordon’s move to Vice-Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports positions him to be in an ownership position when Rich Hendrick, who will turn 72 this month, decides to step away.

Brad Keselowski is rumored to be ready to leave Penske Racing as a driver and move to Roush-Fenway Racing with an ownership stake.  Jack Roush, who is 79, sold half of his team to Fenway Sports Group in 2007. He handles the competition operations while Geoff Smith is President of the company and handles business activities.  Roush once had five teams in Cup (including Missourians Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray at the same time), but was ordered by NASCAR to cut his group to four. RFR went down to three teams for 2012 and has only two drivers this year—Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  Newman is out of playoff contention and Stenhouse ranks 19th in points. The playoffs only include 16 drivers.

Penske Racing is still headed by Roger Penske, who is 84 and has become the owner of the INDYCAR series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Tim Cindric is the President of the racing segment of the giant Penske Corporation. It appears the Penske NASCAR Cup operation will lose Keselowski at the end of the year and championship crew chief Todd Gordon, who is retiring after more than a decade on the pit box. Team Penske has 128 Cup wins but only two this year, one each by Keselowski and by Joey Logano.

A couple of other owners are no longer spring chickens: Joe Gibbs, who will be 81 before the end of the year, and Richard Childress, who already is 76.  Richard Childress Racing has 109 Cup wins in 48 years but only four since Kevin Havick won four times in 2013.

Unmentioned so far as a possible future big-name owner in the top series is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., whose JR Motorsports has met success in the second-tier series.  Earnhardt, who will be 47 this fall, has indicated he would like to move up but the economics behind purchasing a Cup franchise are problematic.

(INDYCAR)—Team Penske finally has won an INDYCAR race in 2021. Josef Newgarden dominated the race at Mid-Ohio but had to fend off a furious challenge in the last few laps from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericcson.  The victory was one day after the fiftieth anniversary of Penske’s first win in Indy cars—Mark Donohue won the Pocono 500 on July 3, 1971.

Newgarden won by about nine-tenths of a second. He started from the pole and led all but seven of the 80 laps.  He had started P1 in the previous two races but had lost the leads in the last three laps of both previous races. Points leader Alex Palou, an Ericcson teammate was third and another Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon was fourth, giving Ganassi three of the top four finishing positions for the race.

It’s the first INDYCAR win for Penske since the last race of the 2020 season.

Palou’s podium finish expanded his points lead over Pato O’Ward to 39 points. Dixon, the defending and six-time series champion is running third in points, 56 back.

Newgarden, credits the “real magic” of the inter-team working relationships for his success at Mid-Ohio, and as a two-time series champion. In a Forbes magazine interview, he says, “We cultivate a culture where we feel we have the best of the best with the ability to focus—good or bad in the past races—we are constantly focusing forward on the next task.”

The Forbes article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2021/07/02/on-50th-anniversary-of-first-indycar-win-roger-penske-reflects-on-success-at-the-track-and-in-business/?sh=521e57d329d0) is with Penske and focuses on his successes on the track and in his private business.

In the article, Penske says his father’s advice has been his guiding philosophy: “Effort equal results.”  He also says in the article, “Teamwork, technology, communication, precision, and performance under pressure are all keys to winning on the track and they are critically important to building a successful business and delivering for our customers.”

And retirement does not seem to be in his vocabulary.

(FORMULA 1)—-Max Verstappen extends Red Bull Racing’s winning streak to five, its longest winning streak since 2013.  Verstappen won the Grand Prix of Austria, starting on pole, and coming home 18 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris took his McLaren to third ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who drops farther behind Verstappen as he chases his record eighth F1 title.

It was  landmark victory for Verstappen, who has dominated F1 lately. Formula One’s Lawrence Barretto observes that the race is the first time in his career that Verstappen has startaed first, led every lap, and posted the fastest lap of the race. He has led 142 consecutive laps in picking up his third straight win, his fifth of the year. He now leads Hamilton by 32 points. Hamilton has three wins. Carlos Sainz is the only other winner on the circuit this year. It’s the fifth straight win for his engine manufacturer, Honda, which has not seen a winning streak this long since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost took the first eleven races in 1988 for McLaren.

Just before the race, Mercedes announced it had signed a contract extension with Hamilton that will keep him with the team through the 2023 season.  He has won six of his seven championships with Mercedes.

F1 moves on to Silverstone and the GP of Britain on July 18.

Hendrick can’t lose; Penske can win

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(NASCAR)—Make it four in a row for Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson, including the non-points All-Star race.  Next week he’ll try to join eight other drivers since 1972 to win four points races in a row. Five of those eight drivers went on to win the season championship.

Larson has dominated the three points races he’s won, leading 264 of the 300 laps at Nashville Sunday and running his total to 648 laps led of the 772 laps in those three races.  He has not finished lower than second in his last seven races, including the All-Star race.

Larson attributes much of his success to his crew but he also thinks his peripatetic racing schedule has been a factor.  Larson left Nashville after his win Sunday planning to run a series of open-wheel races during the week before resuming his NASCAR seat next weekend at Pocono.

The win is the fifth straight points victory for Hendrick Motorsports.  Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott won races before Larson started his streak.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR powerhouse Team Penske is in its longest dry spell in more than two decades.  The team is still looking for its first win of the year. The last time it went this deep into the season without a win was 1991, a disastrous year in which no Penske driver sat in victory lane.

Josef Newgarden thought he had broken through at Road America this weekend, starting from the pole and leading a race-high 32 laps.  But his transmission betrayed him two laps from the end and left him limping around the track for the final two laps as Alex Palou raced ahead for his second win this year.

The win gave Palou a 28-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the series standings and made him the first Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win more than once since Dario Franchitti did it in 2011.

Newgarden finished 21st, the second straight disappointing week for the two-time series champion. Last week, he was leading the second race of the twin bill at Detroit when O’Ward got past him with three laps left.  Newgarden led the first 67 laps.

The third Penske driver, Will Power, was in position to win the first of the Detroit doubleheader races when the race was stopped because of a crash with only a few laps remaining.  His car wouldn’t re-fire when racing resumed, clearing the way for a win by O’Ward.

(FORMULA 1)—It is increasingly clear that Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a record eighth Formula 1 championship will not be easy.  Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, behind by three seconds after his last pit stop, chased down Hamilton and passed him on the next to last lap of the Spanish Grand Prix, and picked up his third win of the year.  His win total equals Hamilton’s and gives him a 12-point lead over the defending F1 champion.

Hamilton’s second place finish left him with a three-race winless streak for the first time since 2019.

Every starter finished the race, a rarity in F1. It’s only the tenth time in all of Formula 1 history that all cars were running at the end.

(Photo credit: Hendrick Motorsports)

 

Notes From a Quiet Street

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Lewis Carroll wrote a poem called The Walrus and the Carpenter that seems to fit these occasional reflections on life:

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

“To talk of many things:

Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —

Of cabbages — and kings —

And why the sea is boiling hot —

And whether pigs have wings.”

We discussed “cabbages” separately recently. Today we want to start with some ruminations about shoes:

I have concluded that shoestrings are an endangered species.

I bought some new dress shoes recently and I can’t keep the blasted shoestrings tied.  The left shoe, especially.  I believe the shoe and its string are in cahoots, planning to make a break for freedom at some particularly embarrassing moment—perhaps when I am walking down the governor’s staircase at the capitol or when I am leaving the church chancel, carrying the communion trays, or perhaps on a wet or snowy day when I am rushing to warm and/or dry place.   The right show and its string are a little less bold but it, too, shows signs of rebellion.

The strings are round, thin, and perhaps a bit on the short side. Maybe it is a reflection of the aging of my fingers that are not so supple as they once were and thin-ish round shoe strings cannot be handled with the dexterity and the firmness of my younger days.  Or maybe its just the design of the shoestrings.

Solving this problem reveals an important cultural collapse.

Shoe stores are disappearing.

First, shoe repair shops disappeared, probably as shoe sole technology improved and longer-wearing non-leather soles became popular and shoes became more disposable and informal.

Now it’s shoe stores.

I went to a shoe store to get replacement laces—flatter ones that I could tie tighter.  The lady went to the back of the store and rooted around for several minutes before producing strings that were supposed to be of the proper length for four-eyelet dress shoes.

They weren’t.

There was enough string to get through the four eyelets but not enough left over to tie a bow knot.  I tied the two strings together and the cats have been playing with them since.  At least somebody is getting some use from them.

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If a new Profiles in Courage is ever written for our times, there will be many cowards and few heroes.  Liz Cheney will have one of the chapters.

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Took a look at a new cell phone of a friend the other day.  Holy cats!  These things keep getting bigger!  Clothing-makers need to be planning larger butt pockets.  I’m seeing commercials for cell phones that open up so they’re twice as big.

Good Lord!  They’re turning into half a tablet.  Is there a size line that won’t be crossed or will this trend continue until they have handles and wheels so we can pull them along behind us?

And when will it be impractical to call them cell phones anymore?

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Been watching quite a bit of the local news on the teevee lately.  Actually, I’ve been watching quite a bit of local weather.

With a little bit of news and sports thrown in here and there.

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Got a little political education when President Biden spoke to a joint session of Congress on April 28th.   It sounded like a State of the Union Address.  It looked like one except for social distancing.  One ingredient (thankfully) missing was the irritating introduction of common folks in the galleries who are examples of noble events or noble presidential proposals.

But it was NOT a State of the Union address.

Jordan Mendoza, writing in USA Today explained that the Constitution does require a President to “from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”  But there’s no set time for such an address.

Ronald Reagan started a new tradition in 1981, the year he was inaugurated.  Since then neither new  Presidents nor outgoing Presidents have given a State of the Union Address coming in or going out of office.  Mendoza reported that is “primarily because a president can’t really speak about the state of the country (after) just a few weeks into office.”

Although Mendoza didn’t report it, it seems logical to suggest that no such speech is given by an outgoing president because his recommendations for action will have no weight of authority behind them—and because Congress has better things to do than listen to one more presidential address that would be mostly self-congratulatory.

Since then the new President’s speech has been “An Address Before a Joint Session of Congress.”

 

 

 

Original Thinking

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(In the cartoons, it’s a light bulb that comes on over the head of the character—the bright idea, suddenly arriving.  Did Thomas Edison have a light bulb come on over his head when he finally perfected the light bulb?  All of us have had those sudden thoughts.  But we don’t think about them. From where did they come?  What inspired them?  Dr. Crane returns after a week off to offer some thoughts about thinking)

IDEAS OF A PLAIN MAN—I

“The thought that comes to you,” says a French writer, “has arrived in your mind after a long voyage through space and time, longer than the last of stars is distant from your eyes.”

Everyone has been startled to find, upon opening some book of old ideas that Augustine or Plutarch or Zeno, that some idea he had fancied to be his own, private, and as yet unuttered,  leap out and laugh at him. It gives one a queer turn.  Am I them but a Thought-Inn, a lodging for the night, wherein perceptions, old and indestructible…come and abide? To think is to plagiarize!

About the only original thinking in any of us is that hazy, not understandable, yet most vitally real thing that we call Personality. When Shakespeare or Browning write, they are but restating world-old things, but the things acquire a Shakespeare taste, a Browning flavor.

Even the words of Jesus, many of them, may be traced to this or that source: His sentiments and commandments may be picked up here and there in eastern literature; the intensely original element in him was his rare and wonderful Personality. His enduring miracle was Himself.

Thoughts are Ancient Vagrants. The New things on this worn out old stone are you and I, souls little flames of God, sparks from the central Sun of Life.

Don’t say Don’t

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(As someone who hates to be told, “We can’t do that,” when he wants to hear, “How can we do this?,” this comment from more than a century ago by Dr. Frank Crane has special meaning. Rather than a phrase, he  finds—-)

ONE WORD THAT SHOULD NEVER BE USED

One word I should like to rub out of the vocabulary used by human beings, one toward another. It is the word “don’t.”

Looking back over a somewhat full and varied experience, I can say that in my judgement didactic prohibition issued from soul to soul, for every ounce of good it has done, has made a pound of harm.

“Don’t” is the stupidest, most brainless and laziest of all parental terms. To tell a child what to do requires thought, investigation, interest. To tell anyone what not to do requires no cerebration.

“Don’t” is the language of annoyance. “Do” is the language of love.

“I like very well to be told to do, by those who are fond of me,” said Alcibiades*; “but never be told what not to do; and the more fond they are of me, the less I like it. Because when they tell me what not to do, it is a sign that I have displeased or am likely to displease them. Besides—I believe there are some other reasons, but they have quite escaped me.”

To be sure, the Ten Commandments are “don’ts.”  But they are God’s, which is different.

*Alcibiades (404-450 BCE) was a general, orator, and statesman in ancient Athens, a student of Socrates.

Correcting a Short, Pithy Statement

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(We hear them all the time. We say them all the time—verbal shorthand that eliminates the need to explore the nuances of what we say or even the truth of what we say.  They’re called “maxims,” and sometimes we need to question their truth.  Dr. Frank Crane suggests the real truth about one of our often-used maxims is just the opposite of what is said.)

REAL SORROW SEEKS SOLITUDE

One of the maxims that is not true is, “Misery loves company.” The fact is, it is happiness that loves company, while sorrow seeks solitude. We close the door to weep, and draw the blinds. We go to the theatre and crowded restaurants to laugh.

Misfortune isolates. Pensiveness is unsociable.

These lines are written on shipboard; we have been six days at sea and all the passengers have become acquainted; for an ocean liner a few days out resembles a country village; everybody knows everybody and everybody’s business.  Convention rules the decks and gossip guards the cozy corners as thoroughly as in a New England town.

Only one man keeps apart.  His wife is in a coffin in the hold. A month ago they went to Italy for a long lark; she died in Naples. This man speaks to no one. He keeps to his room. He may be seen of nights looking over the rail into the boiling dark of the sea, alone.

When an animal is wounded, he flees the pack and in some cave or under some bush, solitary, he licks the bleeding paw or torn shoulder. So when the human heart breaks, its cry is for solitude; it shuns light; fellowship is pain; lonesomeness becomes a luxury.

Joy is the centripetal; sorrow the centrifugal force of the world. Joy makes cities; disappointment makes emigration.

We will make our own futures

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(Carl Sandburg, Lincoln biographer and Prairie Poet, wrote his epic prose poem The People, Yes 85 years ago. It’s one of America’s great statements about who we are. Read it sometime. Early in the work, Sandburg reflects:

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
“I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
and it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
and maybe for others.
I could read and study
and talk things over
and find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time.”

A quarter-century before Sandburg’s poem was published, Dr. Frank Crane suggested that wishing for more time to “do more for myself and maybe for others” was futile. Get on with the doing, he seems to say.  If you want to lift the language of 1912 to the language of 2021, you might want to substitute “humankind” for “man,” as Dr. Crane asserts—)

MAN CARVES HIS OWN DESTINY

Doing clears the mind. Physical activity has a peculiar luminous effect on the judgment. The soundest views of life come not from the pulpit or the professional chair but from the workshop.

To saw a plank or to nail down a shingle, to lay a stone square or to paint a house evenly, to run a locomotive, or to raise a good crop of corn, somehow reacts upon the intelligence, reaching the very inward essential cell of wisdom; provided always the worker is brave, not afraid of his own conclusions, and does not hand his thinking over to some guesser with a large bluff.

Doing makes religion. All religions that is of any account is what we thrash out with our own hands, suffer out with our own hearts, and find out with our own visions.

Doing creates faith. Doubt comes from Sundays and other idle hours. The only people who believe the Ten Commandments are those who do them. Those who believe the world is better are they that are trying to make it grow better.

Doing brings joy. The sweetest of joys is the joy of accomplishment. Make love and you will feel love. Quit making love and you will doubt love. Be kind, steadily and persistently, and you will believe in kindness. Be unclean and you will soon sneer at anybody’s claim to virtue.

So a man has his own destiny, his own creed, his own internal peace, his own nobility in his hands—literally in his hands. For all the worthwhile wisdom and goodness you have in your head and heart was cooked up from your hands.