“April is the cruelest month,
breeding Lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing Memory and desire,
stirring Dull roots with Spring rain.”
April means Spring is here and along with it a new life in all that surrounds us. It is a resurrection of the old. Sometime ago I read the verse cited above and I couldn’t figure out why April was the ‘cruelest’ month. But recently it was pointed out to me that the poet called it such because come April there is new life all around us. Such a happening reminded the poet and us, that we are mortal. We don’t get a new life come Spring. Such a reminder to Eliot, a rather glum poet, was why it was ‘cruel’. As March ended I had an additional reminder of my mortality. I spent the last few days of the month back in the hospital. It appeared that I was heading for another attack of pneumonia. Thanks to the caring persistence of my loving wife I ended up in the emergency room and then the hospital. I came home late on the last day of March.
The Spring we see around us could also remind us that we would someday be reborn in eternity. That is certainly more encouraging thought than the one the poet expresses. Spring means Easter is coming. Easter comes with a resurrection and gives hope to all our doubting.
One of my favorite writers and thinkers, as you probably know if you’ve read any of these Jottings, is C. S. Lewis. He was a contemporary of T.S. Eliot. In fact they were both “outsiders” in England. Lewis had come from Ireland and Eliot from America. Lewis had written poetry early in his life and even published a book of such under a pseudonym. But he never pleased himself with his poetry and didn’t pursue it. Eliot became rather famous in London with his new style of poetry. A commentator reports Lewis reaction thusly: “Eliot’s poetry profoundly dismayed Lewis… This would never change. There was not question of jealousy, Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien, a close friend of Lewis’) would say, but there was certainly a clash between two worlds: the classical and the traditional versus the free and the modern, ‘stock responses’ (solid forms and shapes, conventional symbols) versus new images and subjective thought associations, that according to Lewis testified only to ‘sensibility in decay’.
Garrison Keillor, journalist and humorist, reported in one his recent columns about some claims for disability. It seems he read about people getting tax-free income for disabilities that hardly seemed to amount to such. He cited for an example a policeman in Maryland who twisted his back was given a disability release. He then passes the physical for being a school guard and takes on that job. In other cases he cites disability being given for such ailments as motion sickness, acid reflux, and halitosis! He then complains that as a member of The Authors Guild he should be getting disability protection. “In my line of work, disability comes down to two things, memory loss and something else, I forgot what” I certainly can sympathize with him about that disability! I not only forget words but ideas that I wanted to write in these ramblings. I have the additional handicap of being a bit older and it seems that memory is one of things that goes first. I lament, as do others, that the fat cells in the body don’t seemed to disappear as quickly as the brain cells!
In between reading fiction by Paterson and Grisham, I’ve been reading a biography of Thomas More, entitled “Portrait of Courage”. More, “The Man for All Seasons”, is the author of the classic novel “Utopia”. I learned of many other books he had written. One was the life of “King Richard III” which became the basis for the Shakespeare’s play about the King. More obtained most of his information about Richard from his relatives who had lived under the King or shortly thereafter. More was executed by Henry VIII for his failure to agree to the marriage of the King to Anne Boylan and his founding of a new church. I am still in the process of reading it but some things impressed me already. One was a line in the introduction that read: “More was a great talker and constant joker. Such qualities can endear, but they can often irritate. When moderated they can become virtues, but when indulged in they necessarily cause strife.” It was a reminder to me of my urge to tell stories is something I really should control a bit more than I do. One thing I try to do is suggest to myself that I am just dosing out a tranquilizer, i.e. humor, which is the one tranquilizer without any side effects. It is an interesting excuse but nevertheless is still that i.e., an excuse. On Sunday April 5th the NYTimes Book Review reviewed a book entitled “A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg” by John Guy. It indicates that Thomas More’s life remains a topic of interest.
Another thing I read reminded me that “history repeats itself”. In 1517 there occurred what was called “Evil May Day” There was a tension between foreign and native residents or as in our day between citizens and immigrants. A riot broke out. The best description of the events was by Shakespeare. The Mayor and two Earls spoke to the crowd with out success. Then More addressed them with success, at least temporarily.
“If you yourselves were exiled from your homeland, Would you be pleased to find a nation of such barbarous temper that breaking out in hideous violence would not afford you an abode on earth, whet their detested knives against your throats, spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God owned not nor made not you…?” Similar words could apply today of the manner in which some consider immigrants. History does repeats itself.
More was qualified as a lawyer at the Lincoln’s Inn. Now I have heard of the various Inns, or law schools, in England but Lincoln being a name back in 1500 was a bit of surprise. I wondered if it had any connection to our Abe Lincoln. A bit of searching told me really nothing in that it noted, “The Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn is said to take its name from Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln who died in 1311. However, the origins of the name may easily be derived from Robert de Chesney, Bishop of Lincoln who acquired the
‘old Temple’ on the site of the present Southampton Buildings in 1611, he was the king’s Chancellor…”
I never thought of “Lincoln” as being such an historic name (other than in America) certainly not going back as far as 1161. I never read that Abe bothered to find out anything about his genealogy since he spent most of him time planning and being ready for the future. Typically a very practical guy, I came across a quote of his epitomizing this. In his first campaign he said: “If elected I will be thankful. If beaten, I can do as I have been doing, work for a living.” It is a wonder that those who love to deride politicians never came across this statement to use to show that politicians ‘don’t work for a living’!
April is still considered a cruel month for some in that it is the month in which our income taxes are due. We could not believe that here people out there still trying to contend that ‘income taxing’ is unconstitutional. The 16th Amendment permitting it was passed in 1913. The amendment grants “…the power to lay and collect taxes on income…without apportionment among the several states” There are several organizations of ‘tax deniers’ who try argue that income taxing is unconstitutional or that they don’t fit the definition of a ‘person’ as used in the Internal Revenue Code. All of which has led to many of them be prosecuted for failure to pay taxes and ending up in the penitentiary. So for them April is a very cruel month!
We continue to be restricted in our movement and breathe with oxygen pumped in, so any and all prayers are appreciated. Pax Tecum!