Things to Think

Hard word never killed anybody. But why take a chance?
-Edgar Bergen

Anyone who works is a fool. I don't work. I merely inflict myself on the public.
-Robert Morley

^^^

LABOR DAY MEMORIES
The chief Labor Day memories I have is going on vacation with my family. Each year we would go somewhere....not fancy, but a Holiday Inn was the Ritz to us. Six people in a hotel room can get crowded (maybe someday I will write a Hyperion X about how tough it was when I was 12 and 13.....), but whatever fighting and bickering took place has faded in my mind.

I remember we got to watch cable TV, if only for one week. Back then that seemed so exotic and exciting. Of course, Labor Day weekend was normally a pretty low point for TV, so that meant marathons of the U.S. Open (where I came to appreciate a deep respect for Ivan Lendl and a deep love for Steffi Graf) and the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

I remember one telethon, must have been early Monday morning, about the time that Jerry's half in the bag and most of the band is openly hitting on co-eds over by the phones. A comedian was doing his act. I was too young to remember names, but part of me thinks it might have been a very young Kevin Meaney.

Anyway, whoever he was, the dude was bombing big time. The audience was tired, and no one was laughing. Suddenly the comedian decided "screw it" and started dancing around. In full Showgirls style he started singing "I don't care, I don't care (He doesn't care!)...." along with the full background vocals, all while giving us a poor man's chorus line. Of course the audience loved it, and it has become a running gag in our family. When I think of Labor Day, that's always my favorite memory.

^^^

[I was watching Bill Moyers yesterday and heard this dude read a poem I just had to reprint here. It took me a long time to track down that it was Robert Bly. The copyright belongs to him, but I think if it gets some of you to read his poetry Robert will be understanding....Think on this poem on this Labor Day, or any time you feel particularly stressed about your life.]

THINGS TO THINK
Robert Bly

Think in ways you've never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.

When someone knocks on the door,
Think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to work all the time,
Or that it's been decided that if you lie down no one will die.