First Monday with Characters

Monumento a Pau Casals en Barcelona

Edited by Morris Dean

Geoffrey Dean, en España

Every year it’s a special hope of mine that I will not be in Sofia for the Christmas craziness in the Bulgarian capital, and this year I took special measures to make that happen. Inspired by Eric Siblin’s book about the famous Catalan cellist Pau Casals (Pablo in Spanish) and the Bach cello suites (the two stories are interwoven in an engaging journalistic style), I decided it was time to visit some of the places he lived. So we took a budget flight to Barcelona on the 19th, and on my birthday we went down the Catalan coast to En Vendrell, where Casals was born. We also visited Sant Salvador, where he summered at his beachfront villa in the 20s and 30s, and in time for Christmas eve we traveled to Prades in the French Pyrenees, where Casals lived in exile after Franco came to power. On the 26th a friend surprised us by taking us to the ballet in Monte Carlo—Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, choregraphed by Jean Christophe Maillot, was a completely engrossing celebration of movement, color, and holiday humor!

C.P.E. Bach

André Duvall, in familia

I’ve enjoyed the holiday season with family in Arkansas. I also celebrated a birthday on New Year’s Day with a meal at Red Lobster, which has become an annual tradition. Unfortunately, I’ve been ill during this time with throat and ear infections, as well as swollen gums, resulting in a short character update. I have, however, been immersed in my dissertation research and writing. Johann Sebastian Bach and his son C.P.E. have kept me company! Happy New Year.

Dawn Burke, in remembrance

This character is missing her Pa and dealing with daily life. It really is a void without him! [Editor’s Note: Dawn’s father was my brother-in-law, and I feel a void too. I’d wager that everyone who ever met the man misses him.]
    Wishing everyone a safe, happy, & kind New Year.

James Knudsen, on a computer pogrom

For at least a little while, the computer programmers of the world are safe from my wrath. I have been on a computer pogrom for the past few days, deleting hundreds of old emails, removing programs and figuring out how to get the pop-ups from popping up. I’ve actually had some success.
    In other news, a North Carolina city council member penned a resignation letter in Klingon. This was found to be unprofessional. Well, DUH. But it is funny—a little sad, but funny. And too much of the world has lost its sense of humor. So in the spirit of encouraging everyone to have a better year, I offer this jingle, sung to the melody of that famous 1970’s ad, “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”:

I’d like to give the world a laugh
And start it chuck-le-ing
I’d like to make mad people smile
What rhymes with chuck-le-ing?

I’d like the world to giggle more
And look up at the sky
And here’s a reason you should laugh
It’s the best way you can die!

Susan C. Price, keeping on working on

my character...is not improved by 2013...but perhaps changed a bit
    this is the year in which i fully retired and began to explore (oh, at agonizing “navel gazing” intensity...so verrry boring, i think) the changes this makes to my life and how i perceive it
    i keep working on:...(for me resolutions happen all year long, lapse, get renewed, repeat)

• keeping my mouth shut—think it dont say it—no, they don’t all need to know what you think and you are not always right (WHAT!!!) and they will get along ok without your vast wisdom on how everything should be done
• don’t worry about dementia, that’s the fastest way to bring it on...worry, incessant, anxiety-producing worry...in fact...isn’t that mental habit a SIGN of.....?
• remember how blessed you are: original family, added family, the dude abides and greets you every morning with a silly grin...like he’s glad you are here...friends who surprise you, kids, grandkids, new neighbor who suddenly hugs you and says, “Thanks Aunt Susie!” hmmmm heard that before..and it still sounds real good, and a place where the sun so often shines, and it only shakes...now and then...and we have a rope ladder and crowbar
• creativity vs productivity—who says i’m supposed to produce stuff, hunh?
• movies...why am i not making time to stream and watch or go somewhere and watch
• yes!! the second try at double-rise cinnamon buns was NEARLY perfect...
• and so many other silly things

New Year's Day 2014

Tom Lowe, in good maintenance

The significant change in my life in the last month is that I’ve gotten a part time home-care worker. This was arranged while I was in the Elmwood recovery facility, but took a couple of months to set up. I hired someone who was already working for another person in my building. I had gotten a sense of her temperament, and figured that she was a good choice. In reality I underestimated her: my place hasn’t been this well-maintained since I moved in. She is a mother of three teens, divorced, and a classical example of a hard working immigrant. I have totally lucked out in finding Maria. Forget all the clichés that Fox and the Tea Baggers keep trying to sell, she, her family, and her kids are the true future of America.

Oak Christian
School staff photo

Kyle Garza, in life more and more personal

I am soon to pick up the spring semester at the school in which I teach 8th and 9th grade English. I am now the speech coach of the school, so all the students competing in IE’s (Individual Events) have to run through me. We have several tournaments coming in the spring semester, one of which will land us at Stanford—I really look forward to that!
    I will also be the head of the Shakespeare Competition at our school, wherein students compete in the delivery of monologues and soliloquies from Shakespeare’s plays.
    In my more personal life, my next Master of Arts degree course begins in late January, and it will be solely on C.S. Lewis’s role in contributing to the realm of “imaginative apologetics” (essentially how abstract thoughts can buttress one’s belief in God).
    Still more personal, my girlfriend is now in Muizenberg, South Africa on a DTS (discipleship training school) with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). She will be gone for 5.5 months: three in South Africa, and the other two wherever they deploy her in the world doing quite a wide range of evangelistic and humanitarian work.

Janie & Ed

The Rogers, in & out of Costa Rica

The last part of November we went back to Memphis for Thanksgiving. Janie was going to have a minor operation, so between doctor visits and the cold weather, we didn’t get out much. Loved being with our family over Thanksgiving, but hated the cold.
    I drove my 92-year-old aunt a hundred miles to see my mother’s house. It was the first time she had been there since my mother passed and probably the last time she’ll be there. She is the last; after her it will be our turn.
    I came back ahead of Janie and had the Christmas tree up by the time she got home. We had a nice Christmas on our front porch. It was 83 degrees on Christmas Day. All our dear friends were there and after opening presents we had a BBQ—the only way to spend Christmas.
    We had planned to go to CoCo Beach in January, but due to Janie’s operation that is on the back burner. No plans for New Year’s, but I hope everybody has [had] a very good one.
                            Pura Vida from CR
                            Ed & Janie

Paul Clark , aka motomynd, in amaze

All I’m doing is working, working out, and preparing for baby Caelen. The latter being only marginally more challenging than planning for a three-month trip to Africa. Have you tried putting together one of those newfangled, folding, portable, mini cribs? OMG. I think I could replace a gearbox in a Land Rover quicker and easier. And that takes into account the Land Rover being mired in a swamp with crocodiles and hippos about...which is where Land Rover gear boxes almost always seem to fail, now that I think about it.

"Traffic" in Sydney

Vic Midyett, in a traffic jam

My biggest wish is for political correctness to grow back some common sense.
    Freedom of religion has become a joke when now the Muslims can completely block traffic flow of a public street for their needs.

Sharon Stoner, in need of warmth

What happened to Florida?? This morning it was29° and now it’s up to a “hot” 41°. Send electric blankets!

Siegfried, at his leisure

[Hey, Papa, leave me alone! I've had breakfast, now let me nap!]

Morris Dean, in a quiet cove
    A highlight for us recently was spending two nights on the Sacramento River Delta aboard our daughter and son-in-law’s boat (they're aka The Neumanns, venerable characters of Moristotle & Co.). A few photos tell the story of our delight:

    Oh, and our new 49ers caps, must-haves from the Neumanns:

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Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean

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