the day.

        So, I've been out and about. Meeting friends. Driving to a school, a repository of oldsters. Obsessed, here at home, w/ a painting. So I neglected to write, never got around to writing about the notable souls who came into the world on the 12th of December, Frank Sinatra, for instance, that sturdy, angel-gifted & golden-voiced, troubled survivor of anti-Italian loathing here in America in the early 20th century. And bespectacled abolitionist Wm. Lloyd Garrison (in 1805). 
     Or those who were born on December 13. A lost friend. Poor, clever & charming, high-maintenance Mary Todd Lincoln, with her bottomless grief. She shared a birthday w/ Sergeant Alvin York; did you know that? That back-country fellow whose conscience and strength was tested in the vile, dreadful, and [worst of all needless 'Great War.'
    But today, the 14th of December, marks the day that a lovely niece of mine was born, 22 years ago, the child of my little sister. I spent part of it, taking paintings down from my walls, carrying them to a local gallery. Hoping that people would see them and think 'one of our neighbors draws pretty pictures.' And it marks the day that many a little sister and brother were blasted out of this world by yet another troubled young man. 
    What good, what fancied wrong was redeemed - what satisfaction did he gain from those vile murders? 
    And somewhere, above, below, & beyond this wondrous, horrid world, I have to believe that his immortal knowing will be confronted with the depth of what he has done.
    Once upon a time, that murderer was a beautiful baby boy. And here, at Christmastime, we're left to ponder and grieve.

12th of December

"Be regular and orderly in your life so that you might be violent and original in your work." Gustave Flaubert, b. on Frank Sinatra's birthday, did he but know it, in 1821. Later on, in the spring of 1880, he kicked the bucket on Harry Truman's birthday, just for you to know.

'Twas on this day, many of you may know that a vision of the Virgin, 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' appeared in in the vicinity of Mexico City in 1531. It's the anniversary of the birth of a long-gone statesman, John Jay (1745) and the abolitionist & orator, Wm. Lloyd Garrison (1805)Edvard Munch, the painter (1863), Edward G. Robinson (1893) & J. Bruce Ismay (1862)exec of the White Star line, notorious for not having gone down w/ his 'unsinkable' ship, in the spring of 1912, It's a deathday shared by such actors as Talullah Bankhead (1968), Douglas Fairbanks (1939), & Anne Baxter (1985), the "Eve" of whom the great film was "All About."

The 12th of December was special to me because it was on that date, in 1968, that my validation-starved, deeply dorky 17-year-old self was inducted into my high school's chapter of the Nat'l Honor Society. The actress Celeste Holm, who was so delightful in All About Eve, once said, "We live by encouragement & die w/o it - slowly, sadly, angrily.' ...at many a place of employment, if one is fortunate enough to have one. I had had one since the fall of 1982, at Current, Inc. in Colorado Springs. I worked so hard there and was such a fool, back in the days before I gave up men forever. By the 12th of December, 1989, Ms. Holm's words were all too relevant. No one wants to be deemed animate office furniture, however useful. So I turned in my notice. Never a regret in all these years, but gosh that was a great job while it lasted. All of those people I worked w/ there, as far as I know, it's over for all of them now. Wasn't there a Merle Haggard song about nothing being so insecure as a secure job? Oh baby.