It is 3:30 in the afternoon, this being Tuesday. I find myself with the gift, the blessing today, of being able to sit outside in a lawn chair and enjoy the day for awhile. I am recovering, well pretty much RECOVERED, from a couple of medical procedures, but still not quite up to full par yet, but that is a blessing, in disguise. It is a beautiful West Texas day, a little windy (surprise! - not) but the sky is that beautiful, deep blue that I have not found in other part of my beloved Texas. West Texas, at least the stretch they call the Permian Basin, does not have a lot of "beauty" to offer, but the West Texas sky is certainly a point of beauty way out here.
I have spent most of the day watching/listening to Season One of "The Twilight Zone," believe it or not! I had watched many episodes of the Twilight Zone in the past, but perhaps I was too young then to really perceive the depth, the social questions, that Rod Serling examined in many of these programs. By the way, I am also listening to "spa music" as I sit here typing. Back when I first watched the Twilight Zone I surely would not have sat around listening to "elevator music!" I guess both my social awareness and my musical taste have changed over the years. Not all of the (shh...a Blue Jay has just landed in the branches just over my head!) Twilight Zone episodes are in-depth examinations of social questions, however. Some are ironical, whether in a lighthearted, whimsical way, or a "Karma in YOUR FACE!" kind of way (rats! the Blue Jay just departed my presence. Even the short visit was its own blessing to me).
I had to interrupt my viewing of the Twilight Zone a couple of times, twice for chores around the house, once for yet another trip to the dentist (luckily everything was okay and I left the dentist without having to pay anything out-of-pocket...another blessing!). After the dental visitation, I also had the pleasure (and the great and infrequent blessing) of having lunch with Child A. He (luckily) inherited his mother's "brains;" therefore he is not only very smart, but is a brilliant conversationalist as well. Lunch with him involves subjects as varied as current politics to why some people today feel the need to eat laundry products to feel socially accepted. Child A's brain is powerful as some computers, and his intellectual take on both common and exotic subjects is always amazing to me. I myself am a "plain and simple, ordinary man," so I am in an excellent position to appreciate Child A's intelligence and insights (Ahhh...now I am in the company of a red-winged blackbird. I never imagined that this bird would be a denizen of the semi-desert, liking water holes as much as they do).
I apologize for the brief interruption, but the lawn chair I was boasting about earlier suddenly and spontaneously split right down the middle of the back. Hmmm....I hope this is not some cosmic remark about my current weight! The chair did not break completely, thus I was not injured...but I lost my train of thought. Oh yes, the Twilight Zone. One of my favorite, more or less lightheartedly ironic, episodes stars Burgess Meredith (best known as "The Penguin" in the old Adam West Batman show) as a little, unimportant guy who works as a bank teller, but can't do his job well because of his almost obsessive desire to read; to read ANYTHING, but especially classic literature. He cannot read at home because his wife constantly throws away his books and magazines, and constantly demands household chores from him. At work, our hero reads his books while trying to make change and keep accurate accounts at his bank teller's window. He is eventually called into the bank manager's office and given a final warning: if he is caught reading on the job ONE MORE TIME he will be fired! So, at lunch time he sneaks into the bank vault, locks the great vault door, and settles in for an hour of unadulterated, uninterrupted reading. Alas, while he is in the vault, War War III occurs, is over within the lunch hour, and the city (presumably the entire world!) is reduced to rubble, with almost no one surviving all the nuclear explosions.
After the bombing is over, Burgess Meredith leaves the vault and discovers that he is the only living being in the entire city. At first he begins running desperately for his apartment, calling out his (less than) beloved wife's name. Soon he realizes that he can't find his apartment. Nothing looks the same. The streets are covered in the shattered remains of the tall buildings, and no landmarks are to be found that could have led him home. Suddenly he stumbles across what once was a large public library. The building is nearly completely destroyed, but many hundreds of books survived the explosions and destruction. Hundreds of books!! Our hero is in heaven!
Forgetting all about the end of the world, forgetting even about his more-than-likely dead wife, Burgess Meredith excitedly runs from pile to pile of books, exclaiming with delight at his great fortune. He finally has time to read ALL the books he ever wanted to, and without any interruptions, without anyone telling him to do his job, and above all, without any nagging from his wife. Nothing matters now...because he can READ! He then spends a couple of hours stacking books into separate batches, one for each month of the next two years. Finally, after getting his books arranged just so, he sits down on some concrete steps and wipes his brow. In so doing, he discovers a classic piece of literature laying just out of his reach in the rubble. He quickly leans over to retrieve the book, dislodging his glasses from his nose as he does so. Unfortunately, the glasses...though they survived Armageddon, alas, could not survive the two foot drop to the floor of rubble. Both lenses shattered to smithereens! Our hero cries out in anguish and disbelief!
Ah, the irony. So much time to read now, so MANY books to read, no possible interruptions (discounting radiation poisoning, I suppose) and he broke his glasses! For, you see, our little man is BLIND AS A BAT without his glasses. And yes, not a single optometrist survived the nuclear attack. But...could you expect anything DIFFERENT...when you are in The Twilight Zone???
Thanks for your kindness, your blessing to me in reading this post...
And may God bless you all...
I have spent most of the day watching/listening to Season One of "The Twilight Zone," believe it or not! I had watched many episodes of the Twilight Zone in the past, but perhaps I was too young then to really perceive the depth, the social questions, that Rod Serling examined in many of these programs. By the way, I am also listening to "spa music" as I sit here typing. Back when I first watched the Twilight Zone I surely would not have sat around listening to "elevator music!" I guess both my social awareness and my musical taste have changed over the years. Not all of the (shh...a Blue Jay has just landed in the branches just over my head!) Twilight Zone episodes are in-depth examinations of social questions, however. Some are ironical, whether in a lighthearted, whimsical way, or a "Karma in YOUR FACE!" kind of way (rats! the Blue Jay just departed my presence. Even the short visit was its own blessing to me).
I had to interrupt my viewing of the Twilight Zone a couple of times, twice for chores around the house, once for yet another trip to the dentist (luckily everything was okay and I left the dentist without having to pay anything out-of-pocket...another blessing!). After the dental visitation, I also had the pleasure (and the great and infrequent blessing) of having lunch with Child A. He (luckily) inherited his mother's "brains;" therefore he is not only very smart, but is a brilliant conversationalist as well. Lunch with him involves subjects as varied as current politics to why some people today feel the need to eat laundry products to feel socially accepted. Child A's brain is powerful as some computers, and his intellectual take on both common and exotic subjects is always amazing to me. I myself am a "plain and simple, ordinary man," so I am in an excellent position to appreciate Child A's intelligence and insights (Ahhh...now I am in the company of a red-winged blackbird. I never imagined that this bird would be a denizen of the semi-desert, liking water holes as much as they do).
I apologize for the brief interruption, but the lawn chair I was boasting about earlier suddenly and spontaneously split right down the middle of the back. Hmmm....I hope this is not some cosmic remark about my current weight! The chair did not break completely, thus I was not injured...but I lost my train of thought. Oh yes, the Twilight Zone. One of my favorite, more or less lightheartedly ironic, episodes stars Burgess Meredith (best known as "The Penguin" in the old Adam West Batman show) as a little, unimportant guy who works as a bank teller, but can't do his job well because of his almost obsessive desire to read; to read ANYTHING, but especially classic literature. He cannot read at home because his wife constantly throws away his books and magazines, and constantly demands household chores from him. At work, our hero reads his books while trying to make change and keep accurate accounts at his bank teller's window. He is eventually called into the bank manager's office and given a final warning: if he is caught reading on the job ONE MORE TIME he will be fired! So, at lunch time he sneaks into the bank vault, locks the great vault door, and settles in for an hour of unadulterated, uninterrupted reading. Alas, while he is in the vault, War War III occurs, is over within the lunch hour, and the city (presumably the entire world!) is reduced to rubble, with almost no one surviving all the nuclear explosions.
After the bombing is over, Burgess Meredith leaves the vault and discovers that he is the only living being in the entire city. At first he begins running desperately for his apartment, calling out his (less than) beloved wife's name. Soon he realizes that he can't find his apartment. Nothing looks the same. The streets are covered in the shattered remains of the tall buildings, and no landmarks are to be found that could have led him home. Suddenly he stumbles across what once was a large public library. The building is nearly completely destroyed, but many hundreds of books survived the explosions and destruction. Hundreds of books!! Our hero is in heaven!
Forgetting all about the end of the world, forgetting even about his more-than-likely dead wife, Burgess Meredith excitedly runs from pile to pile of books, exclaiming with delight at his great fortune. He finally has time to read ALL the books he ever wanted to, and without any interruptions, without anyone telling him to do his job, and above all, without any nagging from his wife. Nothing matters now...because he can READ! He then spends a couple of hours stacking books into separate batches, one for each month of the next two years. Finally, after getting his books arranged just so, he sits down on some concrete steps and wipes his brow. In so doing, he discovers a classic piece of literature laying just out of his reach in the rubble. He quickly leans over to retrieve the book, dislodging his glasses from his nose as he does so. Unfortunately, the glasses...though they survived Armageddon, alas, could not survive the two foot drop to the floor of rubble. Both lenses shattered to smithereens! Our hero cries out in anguish and disbelief!
Ah, the irony. So much time to read now, so MANY books to read, no possible interruptions (discounting radiation poisoning, I suppose) and he broke his glasses! For, you see, our little man is BLIND AS A BAT without his glasses. And yes, not a single optometrist survived the nuclear attack. But...could you expect anything DIFFERENT...when you are in The Twilight Zone???
Thanks for your kindness, your blessing to me in reading this post...
And may God bless you all...
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