John watts is traveling to a fair on a special bus and thinking how the day would be perfect if only his wife Martha and their dog Bindlestiff were still alive. The bus gives a frightening lurch and comes to a stop. The driver apologizes and tells his passengers that they will have to wait for a new bus. A Mrs. Evans says that she had been expecting this and it had not hurt. The new bus arrives and the trip continues. They arrive at their destination and disperse into the fair grounds. Stopping to buy cotton candy John is puzzled when the vendor refuses payment stating that he sees that John is with it. From there John meets a stray dog that looks very much like Bindlestiff for whom he buys hotdogs. Once again he is surprised as the carnie won’t take payment. John decides to keep the dog with him until the owner can be found. Later he runs across Mrs. Evans who cryptically asks; did you find her. Curious but not concerned John watches the grand parade with all its wonders. Unexpectedly the parade stops, the Grand Marshall dismounts and asks John if he is the man who travels in elephants. John says that yes and is escorted to an elephant drawn carriage where Martha awaits him.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
WOW. This story I loved. This is pure dream and I don’t ever see it happening. But it is a dream that I would gratefully accept as a part of the world I would love to live in. I have written before about the loneliness that we all at some time in our lives feel. That someone whom we have by choice or chance made an essential part of our lives has gone away and we are now alone. John lost the wife he had loved as his other self and the dog who had completed their family. I have had failed relationships, some were a case of thank God it’s over and others were disappointment that faded quickly as my life continued. Then there were the adolescent crushes where my world was coming to an end and thank God that is at an end as well. I have however had a couple later in my life that I sincerely regretted the ending of. I shan’t name these women as this is a public posting and I have no right to reveal private information about them. Suffice in to say; to this day I still miss them both. Both cases I think were doomed to fail due to irreconcilable differences but since when do affairs of the heart have to make sense. Hopefully my current relationship will prove to be of the John and Martha kind. It is shaping up that way.
The phrase “welcome to my world” does not make sense to me. It’s my world and whereas there are times when I would gladly invite others to share it this is not possible. As I have mentioned in the past we each create our own existence, with our own perspective on everything based on our own life experiences. This becomes clear in differences of opinion. As an example of this, I was watching Terminator 2 with a friend when the scene with Sarah Connor doing chin ups on the end of her bed comes on. Whereas I have never considered Linda Hamilton to be exceptionally attractive she is at least a pleasant looking woman, in this she appears gaunt to the point of emaciation, wild eyed with some internal derangement and about as attractive as the human wreckage one see is in the world’s worst slums. My friends comment; she’s hot. What world does he live it? His own world of course. His taste in cars, food, women, entertainment, clothing styles, etcetera, were different from, but no less valid than mine. Another story which clearly exemplifies this concept is about a gatekeeper for a city (back when cities had walls) who, when approached by a stranger asking about the kind of people who resided within would reply by asking what kind of people lived in the city he had just come from. If the stranger replied “oh they were the most wretched people on earth, greedy and self absorbed, lacking in kindness or compassion and I am well rid of them” the gatekeeper would reply, pass on stranger for you will find the same here. If on the other hand the stranger said “they were the salt of the earth, the best neighbors a man could ask for” the gatekeeper would say welcome friend for those kind of people live here as well. I don’t know the origins of this story but my exposure to it came from one of Robert Fulghum’s kindergarten series. (I highly recommend reading these). Once again this shows that we each create our own world.
Heinlein has taken this one step further, suggesting that we create our own heaven (and presumably hell as well). John and Martha had in life loved carnivals and consequently that was where they would spend their eternity as well, with Bindlestiff of course.
Sincerely yours
The rational anarchist
Comments