Stories

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.

Six Words: Squeeze, Judge, Jelly, Tin, Quiet, Passage

In a basement in Kharkiv, a boy looked around, trying to judge whether he could move outdoors to pee. Then, quietly, he squeezed through the passage between sheets of tin that had once been a fence. In his pocket, a tin of sardines and a packet of jelly. Once, not long ago, he had more. Once, not long ago, he had parents.

Six Words: Tempt. Experiment, Club, Channel, Forward, Scramble

A mad scramble,
The fish in the channel,
Always going forward,
Their annual attempt
To return to their breeding ground,
Like a soccer club or rugby club,
Goal seeking, rarely achieving.
While the game wardens
and dam builders
Watched to see –
would they survive.