The Event
Washington Square Park - NYC
I was in my early twenties.
It was the mid 1970's.
It was a late summer Sunday afternoon.
As a member of the Black Friars -
(a group of four actor/minstrels who had spent the summer touring
New England fairs, churches, carnivals, camps and schools
with two original clown shows) -
I was,
after completing a performance,
standing among admirers,
when a remarkable event took place.
A young woman’s cry suddenly pierced the air.
I turned.
Everyone was gazing at the ground at my feet.
I looked down and in the dirt was a bat,
whisper-squeaking and writhing.
As we attempted to fathom
the mystery of why,
in the light of day
in the middle of an open field
in one of the planet's largest urban settlements
there was this rare, nocturnal creature,
the young woman's pleading voice whispered:
"Put it out if its misery - someone - please!"
Instinctively, I reached for a wooden staff used in our show,
and just as I raised it above my head to strike,
two bats flew away.
We all laughed in astonished relief
and for years
this memory conjured up
a smiling image of
immutable cohabitation.
Until,
with the advent of time the
Realization
dawned
of a previously blithely ignored
yet
obvious and undeniable truth.
Perhaps
the possibility
that no,
not sex,
but
warfare,
had been witnessed.
This evolutionary realization
coupled with both a
Fascination
for Shakespeare's pervasive use of verbal opposition.
(Examples are so numerous that only a voluminous treatise would suffice).
Here is just one example from sonnet #66:
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill
and an
Understanding
of mankind's most lethal psychological weapon of mass distraction -
the parental double message of:
Do As I Say - Not As I Do
has led me
with a whimsical defiance
to the Creation of an
oxymoronic linguistic cyclotron
known as the
REALM of YO
Here are a few examples:
