Stories

Six Words: Arrange, Inn, Banquet, Forestry, Advocate, Remark

You always need to be careful when making remarks about Magical Little People. You know about the little people. They’re usually out of sight, often spotted just out of the corner of your eye. In Ireland they’re called Leprechauns. In Hawaii they’re the Menuhune. In Tolkien’s books they’re Hobbits. In the Harry Potter books, and maybe in your front yard, they’re gnomes. One of the most famous little people, of course, is Tinkerbell, but she isn’t the only fairy, and England and Neverland aren’t the only places that Fairies live. Sometimes the little people are called Elves, and they don’t only live at the North Pole helping Santa. You may even have an “Elf on the Shelf” yourself! We’re all familiar with those famous seven dwarfs who are expert at forestry. But in case you’re wondering, Mermaids are not Little People.

Sometimes you may think you see one of these magical little people at a banquet, or even on a Wednesday afternoon at happy hour after a few liquid refreshments. If you visit an inn in an old, remote village almost anywhere in the world, the innkeeper is likely to be an advocate for the magical little people in the area. But if the innkeeper offers to setup a meeting, be suspicious. The little people you’d want to meet never let regular folks arrange their schedules.

I did see one once, a leprechaun, when we visited Blarney Castle. I didn’t find a pot of gold, but I did manage to take a picture as he scampered behind a tree. His almost magical ability to hide seems to extend even to the picture, as he scampers out of sight before most people can see him. I’ve printed the photo in case any of you want to try, even if it isn’t happy hour.

Six Words: Cup, Daughter, Broadcast, Projection, Rehabilitation, Designer

The designer volunteered to create a public service announcement, telling people about a rehabilitation program for young women who had run away from home and been exploited. First, she projected a picture of her own daughter holding a cup, sipping tea or cocoa onto a screen. When she was satisfied with the pose, and was confident that her daughter could not be recognized, she made the image available so that it could be broadcast over the internet, on television and on billboards. The hope is that it saves some girls and families from sorrow and even tragedy.

Six Words: Feature, Rule, Revive, Pig, Waste, Control

When we got this list of words, they didn’t seem interesting to me. I continued to think about that throughout the week, but Friday evening inspiration came to me, and the words completely and rapidly fell into place, too good to waste.

Most of you will recall George Orwell’s 1945 “satirical allegorical novella” Animal Farm. Wikipedia describes the book as: “the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship” of a pig.

If you were seeing this in print, it would be easy for you to see how the words “rule” and “control”, featured in our list, are equivalent to dictatorship in that description of Animal Farm.

Animal Farm was written as a protest of Stalinist dictatorship. The animals rebel and create a list of seven commandments. The most important commandment is “All animals are equal.” And things go well – for a while. Two of the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, are particularly eloquent and become the leaders. They like the power, and give themselves and the other pigs special food and special privileges. Snowball teaches all the animals to read and write. Napoleon grows a cult of dogs that are loyal to him. The farmers try to regain control. There is a big battle where Napoleon hides. The farmers fail to regain control.

Snowball wants to modernize but Napoleon disagrees. Tension among the party, er, pigs escalates. Napoleon’s cult chases Snowball away. Things go awry on the farm and Napoleon says everything that has gone wrong was Snowball’s fault! Many animals who are alleged to be helping Snowball in plots are executed by Napoleon’s dogs.

Isn’t it surprising, and sad, that some ideas that we thought had become part of history are being revived today?

Six Words: Pardon, Depression, Shy, Pattern, Hard, Fish

Pardon me for sharing a depressing story, but I’ll try to end it on an upbeat note. Like many of you, my parents were teens and young adults during the Great Depression. I know that it was hard on them and that established patterns that influenced them for the rest of their lives, and those patterns influenced their children’s lives, mine and my sister’s, as well. I heard very little about their lives during the depression. I don’t know if it was because they were shy about how they and their families survived. I never fished for details, but now I wish that I had.

Those depression era patterns that, somewhat watered down, carried over to my sister and me, have not carried over to my children and certainly not to my grandchildren. Turning off lights when they’re not needed is an obvious difference. And they don’t even have to flip a switch to turn off a light. They would only have to say: “Alexa, turn off the kitchen light.” But I guess I shouldn’t talk. Alexa automatically turns on lights in my bedroom at sunset, and when I want them off – you know what comes next. It is me that says, “Alexa, turn off the lights.”

Six Words: Accurate, Reinforce, Europe, Copy, Reliance, Tumble

As I started to write this article, I had a pretty good idea of what it would say, so I turned to thinking about a title. The first title that came to mind was: “May you live in interesting times”, which most of us know as an ancient Chinese curse, but I wondered if that was true. It is not true! There is no such Chinese curse. It appears that the curse is actually a paraphrase of a line from a speech by British politician Joseph Chamberlain in 1898! Neville Chamberlain, was his son. The “peace in our time” Neville Chamberlain! So it seems that famous, but inaccurate, sayings run in the family.

Having learned that bit of history, I continued my quest for a suitable title. Thomas Paine, on December 23, 1776, came to my rescue. He wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” That was almost the title of this essay, but it is a little long. Those words of Paine, though, are the opening sentence of an essay that he titled, simply: “The Crisis”. That, I think, would be an appropriate title for this essay too, and it is the name of this file on my computer. But for the title, I did go with: “Someday there will be a name for this time”.

Now, to finally get to the original challenge for today. . .

It is accurate to say that “we live in interesting times”. This is a time of crisis. A time of crisis in Europe. A time of crisis for American democracy. A time of crisis for our planet and the very air we breathe and the water we’re reliant on. Fortunately, most western countries are strong enough to reinforce Ukraine militarily at a slow but accelerating pace since Russian troops tumbled into Ukraine. The question now, is whether we will copy the mistakes of the beginning of World War 2 and the rise of European dictatorships, or whether we will stand united to reject invaders in Europe and whether we will preserve our Constitution and Democracy in America.

Six Words: Violation, Liver, Document, Tear, Alarm, Absorb

Liver alone, liver alone the crowd yelled with alarm as they absorbed the noise, and the violation of her personal space, as she tore the document that some believed to be sacred, but others believed to be a forgery.

Six Words: Lawyer, Pity, Soar, Philosophy, Faithful, Bland

The lawyer had dreams
She studied books filled with reams,
She studied so faithfully,
Stared at them balefully,
But philosophy?
Oh, that was a pity.
Her aspirations had soared,
But the books, they just bored;
Bland were the words,
That course – for the birds.

Six Words: Justice, Bite, Presidential, Chain, Order, Suite

On day six, Adam and Chava were created (Chava is the name that Adam gives to the Woman in Genesis 3:20. In Hebrew, Chava is only three letters. Chava gets translated to Eve because of the way it is spelled in Hebrew, חוה. The root of the word Chava is Chai, which means “life”. Adam says that Chava is the mother of all life.). They were given a sort of presidential suite as a home. Not bad for a starter home. There was just one rule to follow. There was a standing order not to bite into the fruit of one special tree. But they were young and lacking in wisdom. Obeying orders did not come naturally. So of course they bit. Thus began a chain of events that included them losing their home and becoming homeless. The free food and lodging ended. As punishment, only by the sweat of the Man’s brow would they get food. But Woman, the bearer of children, would have hardship in bearing those children. What do you think? Is that justice?

Six Words: Fuel, Transform, Kid, Decisive, System, Scene

When you were just a kid, it didn’t take much fuel to transform your system into a lean, mean tantrum machine. You were decisive. Now that you’re older and wiser, you may not be lean and you may not create a scene, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t get just as frustrated.

Six Words: Gold, Prospect, Operation, Perfume, Decade, Fee

It was over two decades ago that Denise and I were in Cairo, Egypt. (There is a city in Illinois with the same name, but there they pronounce it Kay-roe, but that is a different story.) We were trying to walk to the big market area and to get there we had to walk across or around Tahrir Square – which is really a traffic circle comparable in size to traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

It seemed like it would be impossible. Traffic flows non-stop and it seemed like a bumper car track. The prospect of crossing was daunting. Then a man appeared next to me and asked if we wanted to cross. He took my hand, I had Denise’s hand, and we stepped off the curb. He stared down traffic like a bullfighter in a ring (did you know that France has bullfights too, but there the bulls are the heroes and they are never harmed?).

We made it across and he offered to lead us to the market. Almost immediately, we passed a perfume shop and he said it was owned by his cousin and he needed to duck in for a moment and invited us in too. It was a small operation and once we were inside, looking at the gold and multi-colored bottles, they offered samples at no fee. We escaped, I think, without making a purchase. We took a different way back to our hotel.