The More Things Change ... The More Ye Should Gather Ye Rosebuds
The more things change, the more they stay the same
so ...
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
Whoever said "The more things change" etc. (there seems to be a difference of opinion regarding its author) should have footnoted it, at least for my benefit because I'm not sure I get it completely.
In terms of change , the year 2008 was interesting beyond what a so-called "average year" might look and feel like. I severed my right quadriceps tendon, had it surgically re-attached, and experienced the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley and a few other places ... on a cane and a walker!
Prior to my injury and surgery, I received three phone calls that stood out from the hundreds of others I received that year.
Phone call number one: From a cell phone along one of the old mining trails in the Colorado Rockies ... two old friends on a camping trip, who, while reminiscing, got to my name. The last time I had seen either one was c. 1962.
Phone call number two : From the owner/manager of a baseball team I'd played for until 1987 ... (in 2008, it was playing in a competitive league still, but, in a "senior" league). Damn! When did I get to be a senior ?
This is Calvin -- "Can you still play? Our pitcher sucks! Are ya' interested?"
At age 64, believe it or not, I was interested ... and in shape for sure to play against ... seniors for heaven's sake!
A few weeks later, I fell and severed the tendon ... end of resurrected baseball career.
Phone call number three: "Hi ... is this A. Mac?"
"That depends on who's calling," I said.
"Yep ... it's A. Mac," the caller laughed. Clearly, my reply gave my old cynical self away.
"It's Jerry from "G" Street (Philly)," the caller said.
Jerry from "G" Street was one of a dozen or so "boys" who hung out on a Philly street corner and/or went fishing all night, these pastimes on weekends in the Sixties.
So it happened within the span of one year ... 2008 ... that the forces of destiny decided to re-connect a number of good-old-boys-turned-good-old-men after more than thirty to forty-five years of having scattered them to the so-called "four corners of the earth."
But the Forces of Destiny possess at the end of one of their long tentacles ... the Hand of Fate . And over the last ten days, two of the old boys passed away and a third was forced to sell his house.
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
(The first line from the poem by Robert Herrick .)
Make the most of your time ... take nothing for granted ... be kind to one another ... love thy neighbor ... I have become an old platitude-machine ... and no apologies.
In 2010, five of those old "G Streeters" got together, literally from the corners of the U.S., and spent four days again, this time fishing and running around the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was special, it was wonderful ... and it will never happen again.
This photo of the five of us was taken on a trail along Pennsylvania's Lehigh River (I have modified the image in deference to the privacy of those depicted) ... I'm the character in the middle showing a full-hand ... five fingers signifying five re-united friends.
In the mid-'90's before the Forces and the Hand took back some of what it once gave, as part of my job (I'm since retired), I represented a gentleman who is credited with helping to establish the soul/hip-hop group known as Boyz II Men (a story for another day).
Meeting the "Boyz" in their studio is another gift from the Hand, and, I think it thus appropriate to more-or-less punctuate my story with this ...
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Gather ye rosebuds while ye may ...
I dedicate this article to people on NewsTalkers (and elsewhere) I have never met ...
... and come to love.
A. Macarthur (Old but Sincere Platitude Machine)
Thank you, Mike.
You and I dish out a lot of political crap to one another but it hasn't hurt our friendship ... and that's a pretty good indicator that we've learned what's truly significant and what's just background noise.
Good man.
Sorry to hear about your friends A. Mac. I'm so glad you got to be reunited with them though while you could. I sure like that picture of you guys. It looks like you had a blast.