I am so glad that I am a fictional character in a novel. I don’t have to worry about the tricks I use to get you to read what I have to say. For example I got you to click on this article so it must be true that sex sells, but what does it sell? Does it offer happiness and or riches? Can it keep you from being lonely, or does it leave you feeling like a dead fish? Personally I have no sense of smell so it really doesn’t matter to me.
Speaking of dead fish, I was thinking about all the bright ideas and concepts that have ended up smelling like dead fish in the last year. There are so many. I wonder if in review of a few we can come up with a pattern of what not to do, and maybe even get a little insight into what we should do.
What ever happened to amnesty for illegal aliens? Did it die a legislative death because someone forgot to lock the barn door before prejudice and bigotry had a chance to get out, or is protecting our borders really the moral high ground, or are we all a bunch of cattle grazing in never, never land?
Maybe what we have to do is to reexamine our priorities. Are our personal prejudices worth sacrificing our moral values for? When if ever do we exhibit the character of our convictions?
What ever became of sportsmanship in sports? Did winning the game take over playing the game the right way? Did steroids become the performance drug of choice? Why do we watch games like football of baseball or hockey to begin with? Is it to see the violence? Is it to see who can hit the ball with more power? Is it to see who can cheat and win, and get away with it?
Maybe we have to reexamine why we like sports to begin with. Is it to see real talent do something wonderful with their natural mental and physical skills?
Why are our homes being foreclosed on, our credit markets disrupted, and our financial institutions experiencing large loses? Why are we running huge international deficits, and becoming dependant on countries like China and Saudi Arabia to finance our trade imbalances? Are we hooked on cheap imports and expensive oil?
Maybe it’s because we are playing musical chairs with our financial future, and the music is stopping, and we are not prepared to compete in the real world. Maybe it’s because we have tried to create wealth out of new fangled financial instruments and services that are not based on real values or real assets, and they and their faulty premises are coming undone. Maybe it’s because we have allowed the few to enrich themselves at the expense of the many, and it is all falling apart now that consumers have little left to borrow against with which to consume.
Maybe what we need to do is to return to basic values both in assets and in moral equity and in our spending and saving habits.
Why do nominees for high elective office lie and make things up. Is it to win our votes? Why do they run to begin with? Is it to gain power? Whose interests do they really have at heart – theirs or ours? How will we ever know before we vote them into office?
Maybe we should have trial periods for elected officials where each of the most popular nominees gets an equal chance to see what they would really do for the people when they get into office. Then we could make an educated choice. Maybe we need a constitutional amendment to allow us to have a President in training.
Why are our Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Supreme Court so ineffective at expressing the will of the people? Do they have their own priorities mixed up? Is this all part of a power play that benefits only them and the special interests?
Maybe we common folk, the consumers of product and services in this great land, need to express our displeasure by not buying anything made by companies who don’t have our best interests at heart. Maybe we ought to let these special interests know that we are not going to take their abuse of what’s in our best interests any more. Maybe we ought to start to express ourselves. Maybe we ought to tell the powers that be that we are tired of expensive oil, inferior products, and paying for medicines and medical treatments that we can’t afford and which aren’t working, and we are not going to do it any more.
When are we going to organize our spending habits and purchasing power so that the dead fish that these special interests and power hungry politicians are trying to sell us start to rot and smell in the light of day.
Maybe its time we started to exercise the natural instincts that God instilled in both our sexes. Maybe its time we started doing what comes naturally. Maybe it’s time to start making love; not war.
I think it’s time to mobilize our power in the interests of the greater good.
Maybe it’s time to start having faith in ourselves again. Maybe it’s time to start believing in our Country, and our God, and our freedom again. Maybe it’s time we started to value our lives again, and realize how much we have to be proud of, how much we have to be thankful for, and how much we have to protect.
Maybe we can put our heads together and come up with some of the answers.
Hi, this is Arthur Levine. To read more about Johnny’s opinions on world events or to add your own, please visit us at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
CHAPTER 25 – SOUL-SEARCHING - Excerpt Johnny Oops
Johnny was serious about cleaning up his act. He called Doctor O’Hara over for an all night session. He said to the good doctor, “I have to clean up my act. I have to find out why I do such reckless things. I’m a father now. I have to be responsible.” Johnny was sweating, his eyes looked frantic. He was beginning to think of himself in the third person. He was becoming too introspective.
Doctor O’Hara laughed and said; “You know what your problem is? You have no character.”
Johnny scratched his head and replied, “What do you mean?”
The good doctor replied, “You have no backbone, no balls, no moral fiber. You’re a mush melon weakling who relies on hype to make himself look like a Guru, You’re a phony Johnny Oops.”
“What do you mean by that,” Johnny whispered?”
“I mean you’re a farce Johnny Oops. You’re a charlatan. You’re no philosopher genius. You’re just a guy with a glib tongue and a great line of bullshit about faith. If you ask me all that touchy feely stuff about Dialectic Spiritualism is a load of crap.”
“How can you talk like that to me? You’re calling me a liar. I thought you were my friend?”
“I am Johnny boy, that’s why I’m giving it to you straight. I’m trying to get you to see yourself for what you really are. I’m trying to get you to stop lying to yourself.”
“I don’t want to see myself this way. It’s horrible, what can I do to change? I can’t go on living like this.”
“You have to reach deep down within yourself and find your better half?”
“I thought you said there is no inner self?”
“In your case I’m willing to make an exception, it’s the only chance you have.”
“Why is it ever thus,” Johnny whispered?
“Because you have made yourself into some God damn type of Messenger and now I’m giving you the ‘word’.”
“Poor me, I’m being stabbed in the heart by my own ‘words’.”
“No Johnny, in what passes for your soul. In the place that determines who you really are.”
Johnny appeared almost hysterical. He shouted, “I’m going to change. You’re going to see a new Johnny. You’ll see.”
Doctor O’Hara scratched his head, “I don’t want to see a new anything, I want to see the real Johnny Oops. Why can’t I get this straight in your head?” Now the good doctor was whispering.
It went on and on like this for hours. After a while it became difficult to tell who was the patient and who was the doctor. Finally they both decided to have a drink and relax. One drink led to another.
Doctor O’Hara confessed to Johnny, “I have developed a deep-rooted sense of insecurity due to my inability to cure you of your mental inadequacies and machinations.
Johnny admitted to the good doctor that, “I view you as the father figure I always needed: someone of force and a disciplinarian.”
The two of them ended up hugging and crying before they both passed out on the couch.
Jody found them in a drunken stupor some time later limbs entangled on the couch. She ordered them both to the showers and had the housemaid bring them pots of steaming black coffee. When they had recovered sufficiently to countenance a lecture, she read them the riot act.
She told them, you have violated the doctor/client relationship and i hope that is as far as it went.”
They both sheepishly mumbled words of apology and retired to their respective rooms. Frankly neither one remembered what they said or what they did or didn’t do.
Doctor O’Hara used what remained of his faculties to make a mental note to make an appointment to see his own analyst.
Johnny made a mental note to try and remember what they had been discussing. For now our philosopher genius was safe just as he was or is that as much in peril of losing his soul as he ever was.
Whichever it is or isn’t, it doesn’t look like Johnny has much to lose. For now he is going to continue on his path to enlightened chicanery, convinced that he is, as it was preordained, a Guru of overwhelming dimension and practically no character at all.
Doctor O’Hara laughed and said; “You know what your problem is? You have no character.”
Johnny scratched his head and replied, “What do you mean?”
The good doctor replied, “You have no backbone, no balls, no moral fiber. You’re a mush melon weakling who relies on hype to make himself look like a Guru, You’re a phony Johnny Oops.”
“What do you mean by that,” Johnny whispered?”
“I mean you’re a farce Johnny Oops. You’re a charlatan. You’re no philosopher genius. You’re just a guy with a glib tongue and a great line of bullshit about faith. If you ask me all that touchy feely stuff about Dialectic Spiritualism is a load of crap.”
“How can you talk like that to me? You’re calling me a liar. I thought you were my friend?”
“I am Johnny boy, that’s why I’m giving it to you straight. I’m trying to get you to see yourself for what you really are. I’m trying to get you to stop lying to yourself.”
“I don’t want to see myself this way. It’s horrible, what can I do to change? I can’t go on living like this.”
“You have to reach deep down within yourself and find your better half?”
“I thought you said there is no inner self?”
“In your case I’m willing to make an exception, it’s the only chance you have.”
“Why is it ever thus,” Johnny whispered?
“Because you have made yourself into some God damn type of Messenger and now I’m giving you the ‘word’.”
“Poor me, I’m being stabbed in the heart by my own ‘words’.”
“No Johnny, in what passes for your soul. In the place that determines who you really are.”
Johnny appeared almost hysterical. He shouted, “I’m going to change. You’re going to see a new Johnny. You’ll see.”
Doctor O’Hara scratched his head, “I don’t want to see a new anything, I want to see the real Johnny Oops. Why can’t I get this straight in your head?” Now the good doctor was whispering.
It went on and on like this for hours. After a while it became difficult to tell who was the patient and who was the doctor. Finally they both decided to have a drink and relax. One drink led to another.
Doctor O’Hara confessed to Johnny, “I have developed a deep-rooted sense of insecurity due to my inability to cure you of your mental inadequacies and machinations.
Johnny admitted to the good doctor that, “I view you as the father figure I always needed: someone of force and a disciplinarian.”
The two of them ended up hugging and crying before they both passed out on the couch.
Jody found them in a drunken stupor some time later limbs entangled on the couch. She ordered them both to the showers and had the housemaid bring them pots of steaming black coffee. When they had recovered sufficiently to countenance a lecture, she read them the riot act.
She told them, you have violated the doctor/client relationship and i hope that is as far as it went.”
They both sheepishly mumbled words of apology and retired to their respective rooms. Frankly neither one remembered what they said or what they did or didn’t do.
Doctor O’Hara used what remained of his faculties to make a mental note to make an appointment to see his own analyst.
Johnny made a mental note to try and remember what they had been discussing. For now our philosopher genius was safe just as he was or is that as much in peril of losing his soul as he ever was.
Whichever it is or isn’t, it doesn’t look like Johnny has much to lose. For now he is going to continue on his path to enlightened chicanery, convinced that he is, as it was preordained, a Guru of overwhelming dimension and practically no character at all.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Election Madness
Sometimes it pays to be a fictional character in a novel. This way I don’t have to make up my mind about who to vote for.
I find the whole thing very confusing. It seems that everyone wants to change everything. Haven’t we been doing anything right?
All the candidates seem to want to stay in Iraq for between sixty days, and one year, or up to one hundred years. If we don’t want to set dates as to when we will leave then why have we?
On terrorism we finally seem to have struck a consensus. Every one of the potential nominees in both parties is against it. What I can’t understand is whether they think it is a good thing or a bad thing that we haven’t had another attack since 9/11, or is this all just politics as usual, and if so why does everyone want to change things? You can’t have it both ways as far as I’m concerned. Can’t we all agree we want peace and security all of the time?
When it comes to the economy again we seem to have reached a consensus that we are spending too much money, but no one can agree as to which programs to cut or why. I don’t know why people of both parties argue over this because we never seem to cut anything, or is this part of the changes we are going to make, and if so to paraphrase the Old Testament. Why is this year any different from any other year?
People tell me to stay the course. This constantly befuddles me. I didn’t know I was taking a course on how to or how not to win a war. I am also confused by the hue and cry to help people in the middle class. I thought we were trying to build a classless society.
On health care I am similarly confused. Are we trying to get the insurance companies to insure every one except for illnesses that they decide they will not cover, or are we asking people to set up their own health savings accounts so that they may decide not to cover themselves if it costs too much money? All I want to know is who pays and am I covered if I get sick, or you get sick, or any one you do or do not know gets sick, or if you even care?
My biggest problem is that as far as I can see: Republicans are starting to sound like Democrats, and Democrats are starting to sound like Republicans and both parties are starting to sound like Independents who evidently every body wants to be like. My question is if every one wants to be independent why aren’t they? Aren’t you tired of people telling you what to do and how to think? Isn’t it time you formed your own independent opinion?
I find the whole thing very confusing. It seems that everyone wants to change everything. Haven’t we been doing anything right?
All the candidates seem to want to stay in Iraq for between sixty days, and one year, or up to one hundred years. If we don’t want to set dates as to when we will leave then why have we?
On terrorism we finally seem to have struck a consensus. Every one of the potential nominees in both parties is against it. What I can’t understand is whether they think it is a good thing or a bad thing that we haven’t had another attack since 9/11, or is this all just politics as usual, and if so why does everyone want to change things? You can’t have it both ways as far as I’m concerned. Can’t we all agree we want peace and security all of the time?
When it comes to the economy again we seem to have reached a consensus that we are spending too much money, but no one can agree as to which programs to cut or why. I don’t know why people of both parties argue over this because we never seem to cut anything, or is this part of the changes we are going to make, and if so to paraphrase the Old Testament. Why is this year any different from any other year?
People tell me to stay the course. This constantly befuddles me. I didn’t know I was taking a course on how to or how not to win a war. I am also confused by the hue and cry to help people in the middle class. I thought we were trying to build a classless society.
On health care I am similarly confused. Are we trying to get the insurance companies to insure every one except for illnesses that they decide they will not cover, or are we asking people to set up their own health savings accounts so that they may decide not to cover themselves if it costs too much money? All I want to know is who pays and am I covered if I get sick, or you get sick, or any one you do or do not know gets sick, or if you even care?
My biggest problem is that as far as I can see: Republicans are starting to sound like Democrats, and Democrats are starting to sound like Republicans and both parties are starting to sound like Independents who evidently every body wants to be like. My question is if every one wants to be independent why aren’t they? Aren’t you tired of people telling you what to do and how to think? Isn’t it time you formed your own independent opinion?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
If It Isn’t Broke Don’t Change It
Change, change, change: all I hear about these days is changing the way we live, act, and think. What was wrong with the old you, or me for that matter? Don’t we have a lot of accomplishments to be proud of? Isn’t our Country something to be proud of? Isn’t our democracy something to be proud of? Why do we have to change everything? What was wrong with the old us?
I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with the way the Country has been run lately including me, but that doesn’t mean we have to change everything. All we need to do is to change our leadership. We don’t have to give up the basic principals of freedom and democracy that this Country was built on.
Let’s not give up so quickly on the basic principals our forefathers fought for. Let’s not effect change for change’s sake. Let’s not throw out all the good things about our economy and our political system for the sake of getting rid of a few bad ones.
It’s time for a new reality of the possible, and the practical. Let’s remember that we are a people of virtue who have done good works in the name of preserving liberty, freedom, and equality for all.
Yes, we are not perfect, but then I believe that only God is perfect. Yes, we have done things wrong, but I believe to be human is to be fallible. Yes, we could do more, but we don’t have to change our basic personalities, we just have to be ourselves and try harder.
Don’t allow yourself to forget who you are. Don’t allow yourself to change your basic sense of decency. Don’t allow yourself to become entranced by the concept of change for change’s sake.
You have spent a lifetime becoming who you are: don’t change now. You can always seek to be a better person, and to do more good works, but you should not try and change your basic instincts to conform to someone else’s concept of a new American reality.
You don’t need to change who you are, what you do, or who your friends and loved ones are. All you really need to do is to be yourself.
*****
I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with the way the Country has been run lately including me, but that doesn’t mean we have to change everything. All we need to do is to change our leadership. We don’t have to give up the basic principals of freedom and democracy that this Country was built on.
Let’s not give up so quickly on the basic principals our forefathers fought for. Let’s not effect change for change’s sake. Let’s not throw out all the good things about our economy and our political system for the sake of getting rid of a few bad ones.
It’s time for a new reality of the possible, and the practical. Let’s remember that we are a people of virtue who have done good works in the name of preserving liberty, freedom, and equality for all.
Yes, we are not perfect, but then I believe that only God is perfect. Yes, we have done things wrong, but I believe to be human is to be fallible. Yes, we could do more, but we don’t have to change our basic personalities, we just have to be ourselves and try harder.
Don’t allow yourself to forget who you are. Don’t allow yourself to change your basic sense of decency. Don’t allow yourself to become entranced by the concept of change for change’s sake.
You have spent a lifetime becoming who you are: don’t change now. You can always seek to be a better person, and to do more good works, but you should not try and change your basic instincts to conform to someone else’s concept of a new American reality.
You don’t need to change who you are, what you do, or who your friends and loved ones are. All you really need to do is to be yourself.
*****
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Prophet Returns To Do Battle
Johnny Oops returned to lead the battle for the hearts and minds of the non-believers in our midst. He had heard enough of the false claims against him that he wasn’t real; that he was merely a fiction in peoples minds.
Whose reality is it he asked? Is it the reality of people who do not care for their neighbors? Is it the reality of those whose greed makes them take advantage of people of lesser means? Are these the righteous thoughts of real people or a fiction perpetrated on our souls?
What has happened to our humanity? Has it become hostage to the logic of the Computer? Are we allowing our basic values to become subjugated to our quest for wealth? When will we remember the lessons our forefathers fought for that provide us with freedom and equality?
It is not enough to pay lip service to the protection of the moral fabric of our Society. We have to show by our actions that we mean what we say, and we will do what is necessary to protect our freedom, to share the bounty of our land, and to honor the intentions of the framers of our constitution.
Let’s not split legal hairs. Our Nation is in peril. It is being attacked from outside and from within. Our economic dominance is in question. Our leadership of the free world is being mocked by Countries whose own defense we have had to come to more than once.
If we wish to protect our moral superiority, we will have to be willing to do battle with the forces of evil that surround us on almost every side. To do that we have to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge what is fact and what is fiction and what is real.
It is not enough to be men and women of good will. We must become activists for the protection of our society. We must become all that we can be. We must provide the platform for a new era of living: for a renewed American dream. We must be willing to do battle to preserve all that is good about our society and to change that which is not. Are you ready to join hands and do battle?
*****
Hi, this is Arthur Levine, the author of the novel Johnny Oops. To read more about Johnny please access http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
Whose reality is it he asked? Is it the reality of people who do not care for their neighbors? Is it the reality of those whose greed makes them take advantage of people of lesser means? Are these the righteous thoughts of real people or a fiction perpetrated on our souls?
What has happened to our humanity? Has it become hostage to the logic of the Computer? Are we allowing our basic values to become subjugated to our quest for wealth? When will we remember the lessons our forefathers fought for that provide us with freedom and equality?
It is not enough to pay lip service to the protection of the moral fabric of our Society. We have to show by our actions that we mean what we say, and we will do what is necessary to protect our freedom, to share the bounty of our land, and to honor the intentions of the framers of our constitution.
Let’s not split legal hairs. Our Nation is in peril. It is being attacked from outside and from within. Our economic dominance is in question. Our leadership of the free world is being mocked by Countries whose own defense we have had to come to more than once.
If we wish to protect our moral superiority, we will have to be willing to do battle with the forces of evil that surround us on almost every side. To do that we have to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge what is fact and what is fiction and what is real.
It is not enough to be men and women of good will. We must become activists for the protection of our society. We must become all that we can be. We must provide the platform for a new era of living: for a renewed American dream. We must be willing to do battle to preserve all that is good about our society and to change that which is not. Are you ready to join hands and do battle?
*****
Hi, this is Arthur Levine, the author of the novel Johnny Oops. To read more about Johnny please access http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Oops, I Did It Again
I can’t believe I have broken all of my New Years resolutions already, but to tell the truth I have. It’s not that I don’t want to be good and keep my roaming eyes to myself; it’s just that I have what I call a renegade gene. I can’t seem to help myself. I am totally and completely addicted to life. Not just any average boring life, but life in the fast lane.
I guess it all started the day after New Years when I went to my yoga class hoping to lose the terrible hang over I had inadvertently acquired the night before. That’s when it happened.
I was standing on my head meditating and trying to mind my own business when this girl in a tight pink leotard crashed into me. Evidently she was standing on her head too, and lost her concentration, and fell down bumping into me as she collapsed in the most beautiful jumble of limbs I have ever seen.
It must be fate, but these things keep happening to me. I wonder if it is my subconscious mind willing me to participate in these situations. I don’t know, but my instincts tell me it must be so. Just because I am a fictional character in a novel, doesn’t mean I don’t have instincts or feelings. I do. I am constantly bombarded by a flood of emotions, which even yoga can’t stop me from thinking about.
It turns out that Amy, the name of the young lady who crashed into me is very real. She has startling green eyes and wavy blonde hair. Her waist is so thin that I could hold it in my two hands, which I did as I gently lifted her off of me. I was determined to keep my distance and my New Years resolutions, but it didn’t work. Amy and I seem destined to be emotionally intertwined for a long time.
I guess the moral of my story is that some of us can divorce ourselves from reality, but we can’t separate ourselves from who we really are. Maybe the answer as we enter this New Year is to stop trying to change ourselves and be happy with who we are.
Stop trying to stand on your head to change things. Learn to be happy with who you are, and what you have accomplished. Let the real you come through. Don’t try and change yourself in order to feel better. There was nothing wrong with the old you.
I guess it all started the day after New Years when I went to my yoga class hoping to lose the terrible hang over I had inadvertently acquired the night before. That’s when it happened.
I was standing on my head meditating and trying to mind my own business when this girl in a tight pink leotard crashed into me. Evidently she was standing on her head too, and lost her concentration, and fell down bumping into me as she collapsed in the most beautiful jumble of limbs I have ever seen.
It must be fate, but these things keep happening to me. I wonder if it is my subconscious mind willing me to participate in these situations. I don’t know, but my instincts tell me it must be so. Just because I am a fictional character in a novel, doesn’t mean I don’t have instincts or feelings. I do. I am constantly bombarded by a flood of emotions, which even yoga can’t stop me from thinking about.
It turns out that Amy, the name of the young lady who crashed into me is very real. She has startling green eyes and wavy blonde hair. Her waist is so thin that I could hold it in my two hands, which I did as I gently lifted her off of me. I was determined to keep my distance and my New Years resolutions, but it didn’t work. Amy and I seem destined to be emotionally intertwined for a long time.
I guess the moral of my story is that some of us can divorce ourselves from reality, but we can’t separate ourselves from who we really are. Maybe the answer as we enter this New Year is to stop trying to change ourselves and be happy with who we are.
Stop trying to stand on your head to change things. Learn to be happy with who you are, and what you have accomplished. Let the real you come through. Don’t try and change yourself in order to feel better. There was nothing wrong with the old you.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
CHAPTER 12 – A NEW BEGINNING - Excerpt Johnny Oops
Seventeen isn’t too old to start over, is it? I decided not to go back to school for another year. My folks got me on this great International Exchange Student Program in France. I get to live with a French Family and learn how their lives are. They have a sixteen-year-old daughter. Next year she gets to come and live with us in the states. Her name is Danielle. I hope she isn’t big and fat and ugly. I’m searching for some beauty in my life now. I’ve been spending the last few months studying how to speak French non-stop. I’m so fluent in the language I can even philosophize in French. Isn’t life wonderful? I’m beginning to feel good about myself again. I’m still a genius. Geniuses have especially tough lives, but I can take it. This is the way things were meant to be. I have my faith back. I feel almost invincible again. To tell the truth I have had such a full recovery it’s almost scary. Life is great don’t you think?
Danielle’s family, the Gellets, live in a really ancient two-story stone house with a thatched roof in the tiny village of Ez in the south of France. It was a former artist’s colony and the operative description would be quaint. The house sits on a hillside overlooking the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean. This is what true beauty is all about. The house itself has maize of small bedrooms on the second floor and one bathroom (This is going to be a problem, it has no lock on the door). The main floor could best be described as one huge family room opening onto a big kitchen with a huge wood-burning fireplace that’s sometimes used for cooking. There is no central air conditioning or heating, none is needed in this moderate climate. It’s charming.
The Gellet’s have a large family. Danielle is the oldest of four siblings. There are twin eleven-year-old girls and a thirteen-year-old boy (This might be a problem, I am to share a room with Peter). Peter it turns out is no problem. He is always off playing with his friends. The family seems to operate in a happy communal fashion: sharing meals, family outings, and above all laughter. Everyone seems to be laughing all the time. They are having fun. So this is what happiness is all about. Oh, I forgot to mention that Danielle’s grandmother lives with them. She is a small frail woman with a mole on her chin. She uses a cane, mostly to shoo people like me who annoy her away, sits in the kitchen near the fire all the time, and never smiles. At least she never smiles at me. I think the old witch sees right through me. I don’t like her, but I am careful to always be polite and respectful. To tell the truth I’m scared of her.
I was welcomed with great warmth and treated just like one of the family. They laugh at my French. I laugh at their English. We get along famously. Danielle takes me all over. It’s summertime and she is out of school. It seems like the whole country is on vacation. Most days we spend at the beach, and then meeting with Danielle’s friends at a local village café for endless espressos, much talk about America, and endless jabbering about what they are going to do with there lives once they grow up. It occurs to me that they have a better handle on things than I do. No one is out to change the world. No one has any deep thoughts. No one has the worries of the world on their minds. It’s delightful. It’s refreshing. It’s a whole new world to me and I like it. I decided to relax and treat the whole thing as one big happy learning experience. By now my eyes are wide open.
Lest I forget to tell you Danielle is really cute. She’s not beautiful, but she has a great smile, a good figure, and big boobs. She is a very happy go lucky kind of kid, never taking anything too seriously. We sort of fell into sex as something you do to pass the time. It’s obvious to me that Danielle is a woman of the world. She taught me about oral sex -- Alice didn’t have a clue. My first blowjob was a hum dinger. I had no idea what I was missing. Danielle taught me how to please a woman. Alice had no idea. The give and take of it really turns me on. I absolutely enjoy giving pleasure. I had no idea. It’s fun. It’s nothing serious. There is no love. It’s painless enjoyment for it’s own sake. It’s just what I needed. It allows me to put my experience with Alice in perspective. It allows me to put Alice behind me. It’s wonderful.
Naturally I told Danielle all about Alice, but not about my breakdown at Harvard.
She just laughed. “Puppy love,” she said. “Pssst, it is yesterdays news, it is over.”
With those few little words of wisdom, all the worries of the world seem to lift from my heart.
“You have got to learn to relax and enjoy yourself Johnny,” she said.”
And so I did. It was wonderful. Life is wonderful again. My eyes are full of the beauty and the joy of life. Doctor O’Hara would be proud of me.
Mr. Gellet is a simple yet profound man. In certain ways he reminds me of my Dad. He is a poet of some local repute, and makes a living serving as the village postman. He is 49 and only six years away from his pension. Then he will retire and write poetry full time and become a national hero he told me. But he said he would never leave his beloved village of Ez. It must be nice to know where you belong. Danielle’s mother, Mariana Gellet is a big fat jolly woman who is constantly laughing and trying to get me to eat more and more. Her cooking is great. I must have gained 10 pounds. If this is the stuff of life I could feed on it forever. I’m still a philosopher in training.
On Saturday nights the whole family goes dancing at a place near the beach that is strung with multi colored paper lanterns. The live band plays everything from French Country music to La Vie En Rose. It’s great fun. Afterwards we go to a café for huge vanilla ice cream sundaes mounded with fresh whipped cream and surrounded by melting bittersweet chocolate sauce. Let me tell you, until you have tasted real French ice cream, you haven’t lived. It is marvelous. I think the Gellets have guessed that Danielle and I are fooling around. They don’t seem upset. They know it is nothing serious, just two kids having fun and enjoying life. This is the way things are supposed to be. I really like the Gellets. They are wonderful enlightened people considering they are totally provincial. Danielle says they are all right. She calls them the ‘rents’. I wondered what she meant by that? I asked her.
She said, ”It indicates I am just passing through on my way to my own life and my own family. It is like I am renting emotional space and time from them until I grow up.”
I never fully understood what she meant, but then for a ditz Danielle is a very complicated woman. You notice I say woman not girl. Danielle taught me the distinction.
We drifted down the tepid, tranquil stream of summer as we languished in our own feckless ritual of youth. Time seems to have no meaning. How irritating it must be to older people not to have the opportunity to do nothing but enjoy themselves. For the first time I’m really glad I’m young. For the first time I think I am truly happy. I love the nothingness of it all. My only obligation is to enjoy myself. I think I’m doing a good job.
I was sitting alone on the beach feeling a little melancholy. The summer was coming to a close. Danielle was shopping with her mother for dinner. We are going to have Langoustine. They are a cross between big shrimp and small lobsters. I love the way they taste. Danielle’s mother serves them with a saffron butter sauce. Believe me that’s heaven. Where has the time gone I wondered? I will miss all this. Why does this have to end? Suddenly appearing from nowhere Danielle jumped on my stomach and rubbed sand on my chest.
“Why so sad,” she asked?
“The summer is almost over. I go home in less than a week.”
“A week can be like a lifetime if you know what to do with it. Be happy, I have a surprise for you.” With that she grabbed my hand and half dragged me across the crescent shaped beach up a sharp promontory to the top of a rocky hill.
“What’s this,” I said.
“Look down,” she replied.
And I did. What I saw about forty feet below was a frothing pool of dark water interspersed with jagged rocks: formed I guess by centuries of waves pounding against the granite rock cliffs that surround a good part of this area of beach to form a forbidding inlet.
“What’s so special about this Danielle?”
“Jump,” she said. “You have to jump”
I hesitated, looked again, those rocks looked frightening. “I can’t. I’m scared I shouted. I value my life too much to risk it on a whim. I’m having too much fun.”
Danielle embraced me, squeezed me hard, and kissed me on both checks. “Now you understand. Your life is too valuable to waste it being sad. This is my going away present to you Johnny. I give it to you from my heart. Live a long and worthwhile life and be happy. You owe it to yourself.”
The summer ended 4 days later. We enjoyed every moment of it. I cannot promise you that I don’t still have my dark moments. But when I do I think back to that dark foaming inlet of despair with the jagged rocks, I remember Danielle’s words and how much I have to live for. I cannot promise you that my version of life is perfect. I cannot promise you that struggle will bring me redemption or joy. But confronted with the alternative of death and despair, there has always got to be a better way. I search for it constantly. I have hope I will find it. I have faith that one day I will. My summer of fleeting euphoria has brought me the possibility of a lifetime of freedom and contentment. I intent to enjoy it thoroughly. I plan to live life to the fullest. I’m on a roll. Nothing can stop me now.
“Oops Stewardess, I’m sorry, I didn’t plan to spill the orange juice all over your blouse. I must have been day- dreaming. I do that a lot lately. Here, let me help you clean that up.”
“Okay, I’ll just stay in my seat and let you handle the mess I’ve made. I’m used to having other people clean up my messes, but all that is going to change.”
“Yes, it’s a good thing no one was sitting next to me. You might have had to clean up their mess too. One clumsy joker on the plane is enough.”
“Okay, I will try and relax and enjoy the flight back to Connecticut, but I wish I was still in France.”
Danielle’s family, the Gellets, live in a really ancient two-story stone house with a thatched roof in the tiny village of Ez in the south of France. It was a former artist’s colony and the operative description would be quaint. The house sits on a hillside overlooking the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean. This is what true beauty is all about. The house itself has maize of small bedrooms on the second floor and one bathroom (This is going to be a problem, it has no lock on the door). The main floor could best be described as one huge family room opening onto a big kitchen with a huge wood-burning fireplace that’s sometimes used for cooking. There is no central air conditioning or heating, none is needed in this moderate climate. It’s charming.
The Gellet’s have a large family. Danielle is the oldest of four siblings. There are twin eleven-year-old girls and a thirteen-year-old boy (This might be a problem, I am to share a room with Peter). Peter it turns out is no problem. He is always off playing with his friends. The family seems to operate in a happy communal fashion: sharing meals, family outings, and above all laughter. Everyone seems to be laughing all the time. They are having fun. So this is what happiness is all about. Oh, I forgot to mention that Danielle’s grandmother lives with them. She is a small frail woman with a mole on her chin. She uses a cane, mostly to shoo people like me who annoy her away, sits in the kitchen near the fire all the time, and never smiles. At least she never smiles at me. I think the old witch sees right through me. I don’t like her, but I am careful to always be polite and respectful. To tell the truth I’m scared of her.
I was welcomed with great warmth and treated just like one of the family. They laugh at my French. I laugh at their English. We get along famously. Danielle takes me all over. It’s summertime and she is out of school. It seems like the whole country is on vacation. Most days we spend at the beach, and then meeting with Danielle’s friends at a local village café for endless espressos, much talk about America, and endless jabbering about what they are going to do with there lives once they grow up. It occurs to me that they have a better handle on things than I do. No one is out to change the world. No one has any deep thoughts. No one has the worries of the world on their minds. It’s delightful. It’s refreshing. It’s a whole new world to me and I like it. I decided to relax and treat the whole thing as one big happy learning experience. By now my eyes are wide open.
Lest I forget to tell you Danielle is really cute. She’s not beautiful, but she has a great smile, a good figure, and big boobs. She is a very happy go lucky kind of kid, never taking anything too seriously. We sort of fell into sex as something you do to pass the time. It’s obvious to me that Danielle is a woman of the world. She taught me about oral sex -- Alice didn’t have a clue. My first blowjob was a hum dinger. I had no idea what I was missing. Danielle taught me how to please a woman. Alice had no idea. The give and take of it really turns me on. I absolutely enjoy giving pleasure. I had no idea. It’s fun. It’s nothing serious. There is no love. It’s painless enjoyment for it’s own sake. It’s just what I needed. It allows me to put my experience with Alice in perspective. It allows me to put Alice behind me. It’s wonderful.
Naturally I told Danielle all about Alice, but not about my breakdown at Harvard.
She just laughed. “Puppy love,” she said. “Pssst, it is yesterdays news, it is over.”
With those few little words of wisdom, all the worries of the world seem to lift from my heart.
“You have got to learn to relax and enjoy yourself Johnny,” she said.”
And so I did. It was wonderful. Life is wonderful again. My eyes are full of the beauty and the joy of life. Doctor O’Hara would be proud of me.
Mr. Gellet is a simple yet profound man. In certain ways he reminds me of my Dad. He is a poet of some local repute, and makes a living serving as the village postman. He is 49 and only six years away from his pension. Then he will retire and write poetry full time and become a national hero he told me. But he said he would never leave his beloved village of Ez. It must be nice to know where you belong. Danielle’s mother, Mariana Gellet is a big fat jolly woman who is constantly laughing and trying to get me to eat more and more. Her cooking is great. I must have gained 10 pounds. If this is the stuff of life I could feed on it forever. I’m still a philosopher in training.
On Saturday nights the whole family goes dancing at a place near the beach that is strung with multi colored paper lanterns. The live band plays everything from French Country music to La Vie En Rose. It’s great fun. Afterwards we go to a café for huge vanilla ice cream sundaes mounded with fresh whipped cream and surrounded by melting bittersweet chocolate sauce. Let me tell you, until you have tasted real French ice cream, you haven’t lived. It is marvelous. I think the Gellets have guessed that Danielle and I are fooling around. They don’t seem upset. They know it is nothing serious, just two kids having fun and enjoying life. This is the way things are supposed to be. I really like the Gellets. They are wonderful enlightened people considering they are totally provincial. Danielle says they are all right. She calls them the ‘rents’. I wondered what she meant by that? I asked her.
She said, ”It indicates I am just passing through on my way to my own life and my own family. It is like I am renting emotional space and time from them until I grow up.”
I never fully understood what she meant, but then for a ditz Danielle is a very complicated woman. You notice I say woman not girl. Danielle taught me the distinction.
We drifted down the tepid, tranquil stream of summer as we languished in our own feckless ritual of youth. Time seems to have no meaning. How irritating it must be to older people not to have the opportunity to do nothing but enjoy themselves. For the first time I’m really glad I’m young. For the first time I think I am truly happy. I love the nothingness of it all. My only obligation is to enjoy myself. I think I’m doing a good job.
I was sitting alone on the beach feeling a little melancholy. The summer was coming to a close. Danielle was shopping with her mother for dinner. We are going to have Langoustine. They are a cross between big shrimp and small lobsters. I love the way they taste. Danielle’s mother serves them with a saffron butter sauce. Believe me that’s heaven. Where has the time gone I wondered? I will miss all this. Why does this have to end? Suddenly appearing from nowhere Danielle jumped on my stomach and rubbed sand on my chest.
“Why so sad,” she asked?
“The summer is almost over. I go home in less than a week.”
“A week can be like a lifetime if you know what to do with it. Be happy, I have a surprise for you.” With that she grabbed my hand and half dragged me across the crescent shaped beach up a sharp promontory to the top of a rocky hill.
“What’s this,” I said.
“Look down,” she replied.
And I did. What I saw about forty feet below was a frothing pool of dark water interspersed with jagged rocks: formed I guess by centuries of waves pounding against the granite rock cliffs that surround a good part of this area of beach to form a forbidding inlet.
“What’s so special about this Danielle?”
“Jump,” she said. “You have to jump”
I hesitated, looked again, those rocks looked frightening. “I can’t. I’m scared I shouted. I value my life too much to risk it on a whim. I’m having too much fun.”
Danielle embraced me, squeezed me hard, and kissed me on both checks. “Now you understand. Your life is too valuable to waste it being sad. This is my going away present to you Johnny. I give it to you from my heart. Live a long and worthwhile life and be happy. You owe it to yourself.”
The summer ended 4 days later. We enjoyed every moment of it. I cannot promise you that I don’t still have my dark moments. But when I do I think back to that dark foaming inlet of despair with the jagged rocks, I remember Danielle’s words and how much I have to live for. I cannot promise you that my version of life is perfect. I cannot promise you that struggle will bring me redemption or joy. But confronted with the alternative of death and despair, there has always got to be a better way. I search for it constantly. I have hope I will find it. I have faith that one day I will. My summer of fleeting euphoria has brought me the possibility of a lifetime of freedom and contentment. I intent to enjoy it thoroughly. I plan to live life to the fullest. I’m on a roll. Nothing can stop me now.
“Oops Stewardess, I’m sorry, I didn’t plan to spill the orange juice all over your blouse. I must have been day- dreaming. I do that a lot lately. Here, let me help you clean that up.”
“Okay, I’ll just stay in my seat and let you handle the mess I’ve made. I’m used to having other people clean up my messes, but all that is going to change.”
“Yes, it’s a good thing no one was sitting next to me. You might have had to clean up their mess too. One clumsy joker on the plane is enough.”
“Okay, I will try and relax and enjoy the flight back to Connecticut, but I wish I was still in France.”
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