Dilletante is Not Just A Chocolate

As the pace of change ratchets up in our sixth and seventh decades, we often look for those things that abide…the things that have stayed with us over the years. As we navigate the years where life takes things from us- our looks, our friends, our sense of humor-there is comfort in the things that are fundamentally us. If you’ve done or thought, or are moved by something for more than three or four decades it is probably one of your essentials-it is a part of who you truly are. I am blessed by friends who love sports, music, books, children, politics. They are people who are truly the sum of parts that have stood the test of time. Occasionally, a momentary enthusiasm may intrude but those short infatuations do not abide. That’s why you see snorkeling fins, exercise balls, gas grills and “how to” books at the garage sales in 92128.

What abides with me are the FIVE Bs: Books, Buddha, Baseball, the Bard and pure old fashioned Bullshit. A quick look at each of these and the source of them in my life is revealing.

Books have always been my refuge and my defense against against the pain of every day. As a defense nothing beats verbal acuity and a grasp of mankind’s best stories. From Homer to the latest novel on my shelf I find a great joy in simple narrative… in people telling me their stories. Everyone from Roskolnikov to Don Quixote to Jack Ryan is interesting and worth my time. There is little danger of dilettantism in my fascination with people’s stories. I have been attentive to them for many decades and I still learn from them now.

Buddha is an easy one. It comes originally from my early education that convinced me there is such a thing as spiritual reading. When someone tells me there is a path to the end of suffering you can bet that I’ll listen. I do this reading very day from Buddha to Al Ghazalli because I was instructed to do so by people that I respect. They suggest the relationship between the ocean and the waves; between the mountain and the weather systems that pass by it.

Baseball figures into my earlier and most pleasant memories. There was a radio under my pillow at age eight or so and I followed the exploits of my team 154 times a year…until the season grew to 162 games. Dizzy Dean ,Pee Wee Reese, Jack Brickhouse filled my ears with stories of the boys of summer. They were my introduction to the theater of the mind. I had to picture the scene, smell the smells and hear the sounds from miles away…it was a jumpstart for the imagination.

Later in life I played and coached baseball and had nothing but fun …what a gift.

The The Bard- Willie- was a pleasure indeed for a kid that loved words and pageantry. Where else can you find kings, tarts, drunkards, clergymen, fairies, fools, poets, lovers and lunatics on the same stage in the short time frame of five acts? I loved the bawdy word salad that was served up. Still do.

Finally, there’s my favorite…bullshit. I admit it, I love a person full of ideas, exaggerations, silliness and wordplay. My friends in 92128 are good at all of these rare talents. God, I do love the absurdity of our conversations. There is much laughter and very little dour concern for the well balanced comment. They are wits in their own right and their society delights me.

So be aware that the poets of 92128 are not dilletants… they have been doing their craziness for decades. They are experts. Geniuses at having a good giggle. Sometimes I just let it all wash over me and that is a powerful healing force.

So, life in 92128 goes on .