Retrieved HERE by PD and the Team
About an hour ago, I lit (I thought) my last Pall Mall and was preparing to knock off for the night.
But….
…my mind is like an old, heavy duty, Norge refrigerator, humming reliably along and the door is cluttered with pictures, out-of-date calendars, children’s artwork, shopping lists and a thousand memos all stuck on there with magnets. Every once in a while, a breeze will come and blow away some of the clutter, exposing another layer of forgotten to-do lists.
The old man was a character. Lived through the great depression, the big war, served in the Navy during Korea. Straight out of the service, he took a job selling Edsel’s and used his G.I. Bill to take flying lessons. He was a salesman to the end but, I don’t think he ever flew a plane more than a couple of times after he got his license.
He was a washout as a student but a voracious reader, read more books than anyone I’ve ever known. Any kind of books, every kind of books. Maybe, because of his lack of formal education, his opinions and analysis of literature were fascinating, untainted by conventional wisdom, raw reactions.
I often asked his for take on different writers.
Steinbeck-”He was pretty good, some of his characters could have used some balls, like the guy in “Winter of Our Discontent”. “Travels With Charley”, that was a good book.”
Hemingway-”He was a good writer. He was better when he wasn’t writing about all that overtly macho crap. He may have been a closet fag. “Old Man And The Sea”, that was a really good book.”
Not long before he died, we were sitting around on a summer night, drinking beer and, there was some show on T.V. that had something about Kerouac. I was surprised, for some reason, when he told me that he really enjoyed “On the Road”.
So, I asked him what he thought about Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg and the beat poets.
“Ahh…I never went much for poetry. So much of it is so cerebral or, seems like just an intellectual pursuit. Charles Bukowski, I like some of his stuff, more for the common man. You know who was really good, though? That longshoreman from San Francisco, Hoffer. I think he was better than all those guys. You should read some of his stuff.”
And tonight, four Pall Mall’s ago, as I was getting ready to hit the hay, it came to me all of the sudden; I never did look into the longshoreman/poet from San Francisco. And, that’s exactly what I typed into the search engine; longshoreman/poet from San Francisco. One thing about the web that I love is, when the mental to-do list catches my glance, I can at least take a first step, right then. Once I’ve taken the first step, I’m more likely to follow through.
Eric Hoffer said…
“Spiritual stagnation ensues when man’s environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.”
hoffer.jpg
and…
“The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.”
Sometimes, something will keep you awake a little longer than you intended. Some might say it’s a ghost me, I tend to look at it as a little reminder to follow through.
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Tags: Eric Hoffer, longshoreman, old man, poet
"The Mental To-Do List" by Pribek was published on July 14th, 2008 and is listed in Literature, Ramble, philosophy.
Comments on "The Mental To-Do List": 4 Comments
1.
Pat Darnell And Friends wrote,
Okay, Dagwood, I’ll sit up wid’ ya’, while you munch on that Memory Sandwich of cold cuts and holy cheese.
He [also] writes, “It is the individual alone who is timeless. The individual’s hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged throughout the millennia.”
And all these years I thought Jack, Sr. was a graduate of Havard… it took mettle to be in the same room with him.
My English prof regarded us all to be headed for the docks, since
none of us seemed very intelligent… so she made sure to spend a lot of time on “Eric Hoffer [the] self-educated longshoreman.”
“Thanks Professor Underwood; it took a sleepless musician to make me wake up to what you were doing thirty years ago.”
This link you provided is all about escapism… “The book probes into the psychology of the frustrated and dissatisfied, those who would eagerly sacrifice themselves for any cause that might give their meaningless lives some sense of significance.”
Hoffer is concerned with individuals’ losing themselves in the moment of confused allegiance to causes of ridiculous pursuit. “…According to Hoffer, fundamentally ‘a flight from the self.’”
Staying up at night remembering a passing moment with your dad is the mettle Jack Sr. expected from us all. Stay awake, have one more butt, talk this one out… anything left in that bottle? No one did all that better… and I only had a short time to get to know him.
Sleepy now? Hit the hay!
Pat Darnell And Friends’s last blog post..Aahhh… Endings are the most difficult to come up with
Link | July 14th, 2008 at 4:50 am
2.
J wrote,
I liked:
“The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.”
J’s last blog post..PEHDTSCKJMBA, or Touring 101
Link | July 14th, 2008 at 6:03 am
3.
Axe Victim wrote,
Hmm. A very warm post Jack. It has filled me with loving memories of my old man. He too was a voracious reader and more so a lover of both Chess and classical music. He was equally as passionate about both. I grew up hating classical music becasue he made me sit with him on Sunday’s because I had dropped out of Sunday School and he would give me music appeciation lessons instead. “And how does listening to this music make you feel son?” I can hear him saying now. “Can you describe the colours that you can see in your mind.” and so it went on. Man we went through the composers. I mostly hated every minute of it. I liked it when we had, after a long long time, worked our way to the modern composers and what my old fella called ‘contemporary music’that included Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Chicago, Beatles, Soft Machine, Simon & Garfunklel, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez an dso on. I was still just a kid. I grew up hating classical music as I did Chess. Unti the time I was at the kitchen sink washing a few pots etc. and I found myself able to whistle my way - credibly - through Mahler’s 3rd Symphony! And then it started kicking in. Bit by bit. I ended up aged 44 buying a guitar and learning to play it. Then I started writing songs on it. Forming a band. Making an album. Thanks Dad. So as I was reading your post Jack I was reminded by a beautiful song by the Drive By Truckers called ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’. It’s about the writers grandfather but that’s only because his father is still alive. The sentiment though, is exactly the same. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. These days I am also a pretty nifty chess player and I love to read a lot. I guess he kind of got under my skin and never really left. Don’t forget to check out that song Jack?
Link | July 14th, 2008 at 10:37 am
4.
Pribek wrote,
“I guess he kind of got under my skin and never really left.” Yeah, that says it, Axe. And, you are right about how it comes to you unexpectedly.
I checked the song out too. Drive By Truckers have a knack for putting forth real sense of where they come from in their songs. That’s a good one that is new to me so, thanks for that. By the way, I didn’t know that you waited until 44 to start playing. That’s an inspiration. One of the things that I noticed, right off the bat, with your music was that the songs sound well constructed and that you are thinking compositionally.
J-That’s pretty succinct, isn’t it? When I was reading through those quotes, it really hit me how each one, stood on it’s own as a complete, complex thought.
PD-I thought you might get a kick out of this one. And, I’m sure the old man would appreciate your words.
Link | July 14th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
