Father’s Annual Rant – 2013

 

Galileo may have perceived heliocentricism as a cosmic truth, but here in Aurora we make the astronomical claim that the sun really does revolve around us. This year, instead of bedecking the manorial halls with prickly holly we prepare to emboss our roof with solar panels to soak up the celestial light, much to the advantage of our purse.

We also consider the potential of what little acreage we have in our possession and converting it into a marijuana farm, in excited expectation of the liberal laws regarding its illegality are overturned in January 2014. A profit-making proposition that should increase our income several-fold.

 

In the sphere of domestic issues… David completed his first year of employment in the field of recreational art therapy at Fitzsimons Nursing Home in Aurora, and is also currently a volunteer transcriber with the Smithsonian Museum, working on the Oscar Bleumner diaries. Kim received an impressive commission from a wealthy client in the U.K. to fabricate a pair of precious silver urns, the purpose of which is to house the ashes of two beloved Sphynx ‘bald’ cats. Kim and Bella ran their first 5K mini-marathon, Hannah was busy preparing for entry into Denver School of the Arts, Bea was placed on the Honors list at school.

 

Colorado was struck by fire and flood particularly this year. The freak tempest that descended on the region in September claimed at least eight lives. By the will of God we remained high and dry but many of our neighbors were forced to watch the terrible events unfold atop floating sofas. Hysterical reports claim that up to 30 inches of rain fell in just a few days, lawn-sprinklers only added to the confusion. The month of June saw several massive wild-fires in the Black Forest, Royal Gorge Bridge, and Canon City areas. Lasting over 10 days, more than 14,280 acres were affected in the Black Forest alone claiming two lives.

 

Our year was certainly brightened by the birth of a royal prince to Kate and William in July. I was fortunate to win a bet of several guineas on the child’s name – George Alexander Louis. In the national news we see the introduction of a new American compulsory health care system. The American dream is infected by the governmental demand that in matters medical there is no choice but to pay. In February Pope Benedict XVI resigned for reasons unknown. The Papal throne was assumed by Argentinian Marxist revolutionary, Jorge Bergoglio or ‘Francis’ the Bouncer.’ Liberation theology has become fashionable once again.

 

On a sad note we are witness to the death of Nelson Mandela, the South African luminary of civil rights, who worked ceaselessly against apartheid and remains a great inspiration to us all. Without people like Mandela, who sacrifice their lives in the name of justice, the world would certainly be a dark place. Despite his passing his memory and light remains as an inspiration for the future.

 

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2014,

 

Kim, David, Bea, Bella and Hannah.

All Rights Reserved & Copyright 2013 David John Drew, 'Lord Carville'

Genealogy: John Fletcher and the Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen

Another famous Fletcher.

John Fletcher (1579 - 1625): 

''I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, And from that full meridian of my glory, I haste now to my setting. I shall fall, Like a bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more.''

John Fletcher's father William Fletcher is famous as the chaplain who tormented Mary, Queen of Scots at her execution; 'So perish all the Queen's enemies.' Little is known of the playwright's early life, born in Rye, Susses in 1579. He entered Benet (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, at the age of eleven. About 1607 John Fletcher began to work with Francis Beaumont, mainly at the Globe and Blackfriars theatres. After 1613 he often collaborated with Philip Massinger, who actually succeeded him in 1625 as chief playwright of the King's Men; other collaborators included Nathan Field and William Rowley. Sometime around 1606 he began writing for the London stage, working first for the Children of the Queen's Revels. He later moved on to Shakespeare's company, the King's Men, where he eventually became chief playwright. Fletcher was a member of the 'Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen' or the 'Mermaid Club' created by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 for literary types, meeting the first Friday of every month at the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside, east of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Drama was a very popular form of entertainment in the Jacobean age, and there was a constant demand for new plays. Some idea of Fletcher's rate of production can be gathered from the 1679 folio edition of the plays he wrote with Beaumont; it does not contain everything he wrote (and may well contain much that he did not write), but the total of fifty-two plays is impressive - sixteen more than the 1623 Shakespeare Folio.

Realistic characterization and plot was not Fletcher's strong point, but his plays contain some fine poetry, and satisfied his audience's taste for sensation and emotional dilemmas. It is rumored that he collaborated with Shakespeare on the play King Henry VIII. His successful career was cut short by the great London Plague of 1625. Most people who could afford to fled to the safety of the country, but Fletcher was infected when he stayed in town to be measured for a new suit, and died soon after-wards.

"Drink to-day, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do 't to-morrow."

The Copyright to Contradictions, Gross Factual Errors and Plain Plagiarism Reserved: David John (Fletcher) Drew, 2013.

Abraham of Hanoi

The Scripture study started off with Genesis 18:20-32. In this poignant episode the Lord God has heard terrible things about two cities on the plain. If the reports of corruption, greed, murder, rape and brutality are true... the Lord God has decided to destroy them. He informs Abraham of this... and Abraham is slightly peturbed at this. He takes the role of a defense lawyer and argues the case for showing mercy, on the basis that there may a few righteous folk living in the cities... does this mean that the innocent are as culpable as the corrupt? Abraham is bold in confronting the Supreme Creator of the universe in this manner... but expresses his reasoning with subtlety and wins the case; in a city populated and submerged in corruption - even as few as ten people with faith will save it from destruction. Thus Abraham's nephew Lot, his wife and daughters are saved (and perhaps a few more that are not included in the text). Then of course the Lord God rained destruction on the cities. And there isn't a Hollywood ending... with Lot's daughters taking advantage of their father in a very curios manner.

According to most Bible scholars this was all at least 2,800 years ago (if such an event happened at all). However, I put it into a modern context and introduced a moral question: In the Vietnam war a certain village was indiscriminately bombed killing all the people on the basis that it sheltered enemy combatants. When an Air-Force commander was asked to justify this by a journalist he responded by saying 'We destroyed the village in order to save it." I presented this to veterans of Vietnam and other conflicts. Ultimately they also have become the victims of the actions which they performed in such circumstances as the carpet bombing of cities and villages. Orders were sent down from high above... ultimately political men who have not only assumed the power of God Almighty in terms of wrath and destruction - but also denying mercy and compassion.

There is a very deep moral question here. A question of conscience... can we justifiably obliterate an entire city based purely on the view that collectively they constitute the 'enemy' ? We may not be able to do that without also destroying our own sense of humanity... our soul. And, that may be precisely why many. many men are still living the Vietnam nightmare... still trying to understand what happened... and trying to regain their lives.

The Copyright to Contradictions, Gross Factual Errors and Plain Plagiarism Reserved: David John Drew, 2013.

Social and Political Criticism of Ben Shahn

Most recently the 'Arts Discussion Group' focused on the work of Ben Shahn. A major social and political critic throughout his career, during the 1920's and 30's he became heavily involved in portraying the events of the Sacco-Vanzetti court case, which attracted world wide media attention, and still remains one of the most famous trials in modern American legal history. It is difficult to summarize but basically two Italian immigrants were charged with armed robbery and murder, and then executed;

'Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927, a date that became a watershed in twentieth-century American history. It became the last of a long train of events that had driven any sense of utopian vision out of American life. The workings of American democracy now seemed to many Americans as flawed and unjust as many of the older societies of the world, no longer embodying any bright ideal, but once again serving the interests of the rich and the powerful. American intellectuals were powerfully moved by the case.' - Robert D'Attilio

In his epochal masterpiece, USA, John Dos Passos raged in one "Camera Eye" episode;

"All right you have won... America our nation has been beaten by strangers who have turned our language inside out... they have built the electric chair and hired the executioner to throw the switch... all right we are two nations..."

Heavy stuff, but looking at major social, historical and political events through the eyes of an artist is certainly enlightening. We all wondered why Ben Shahn would choose to concentrate his energies on such an event? Part of the answer is in the fact that he himself was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania. Also, the arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti had coincided with the period of the most intense political repression in American history, the "Red Scare" of 1919-20. Edmund Wilson observed that the case... "revealed the whole anatomy of American life with all its classes, professions, and points of view and all their relations, and it raised almost every fundamental question of our political and social system."

So, in the end we are left with some remarkable insights into American society and the concept of justice. We are left with a big question: Are we all equal under the law or are there degrees of leniency for some and accents of discrimination for others? Could ethnic background, accent or language, political persuasion, even skin color contribute to a condemnation under the law?

The Copyright to Contradictions, Gross Factual Errors and Plain Plagiarism Reserved: David John Drew, 2013.