© Hector Lee, 2011
One of the treats of living in the City is Friday Nights at the deYoung, a free event where the museum puts on a social gathering of music, art, and wine. Last night they featured Lawrence Beaman. His spirituals were thunderous! His rendition of Ole Man River is WOW!
The Stag at the Pool
A Stag came to a pool to drink. Upon seeing his reflection in the water, he admired the beauty of his great set of antlers—how magnificent and regal—but scorned himself for his slender legs and hooves—so skinny and unattractive. As he contemplated himself, a Lion appeared at the pool and couched to spring on him. The Stag immediately took flight, bounding as fast as he could. As long as the plain was smooth and open, he kept himself at a safe distance from the Lion. But entering a thicket, his antlers became tangled in the branches, and the Lion quickly came to him and caught him. Too late, he reproached himself: “Woe is me! How I have deceived myself! These feet which would have saved me, I despised; and I gloried in the antlers which have proved my destruction.”
What is most truly valuable is often underrated.
--Aesop.
I saw “The King’s Speech” this past weekend. My first impression was that it was an OK movie. I liked it, but I wasn’t wowed by it. I thought that in the realm of challenges Bertie (the King) faced, a speech impediment seemed small. It could have been that he was born into destitute poverty, had a terminal illness, was mentally ill or was powerless to save his loved ones.
Later the subtle message of the film permeated my heart. His challenge may have seemed small to me, but it was Bertie’s problem and Bertie was the one who had to face it. It was his courage to face the speech impediment that lifted the spirits of his nation during the time of war. He continued to work at his speech impediment.
His speech impediment is symbolic of the challenges and failings we face, little or great as they may be. Our courage to confront them boldly can build our moral character and inadvertently liberate us in ways we cannot imagine. Those personal aspects which we despise can be our great assets.
Last night Susan and Stewart hosted a “Robert Burns Supper.” It was a delightful evening of delicious food (haggis, tatties, neeps roasted vegetables & fish pie) and wonderful company. At a certain point in the evening there was the recitation of poetry (mostly Burns’). It was really a wonderful experience to listen to poetry.
At the end of the evening, Stewart mentioned that while Robert Burns was much beloved as a poet, he had a difficult time making a living from it (he had some 14 children) that he considered going to Jamaica, which would mean being involved in the slave trade. He went on stating that Burns is reviled for considering this.
I responded, “That is so facile. It is easy to judge the man from this point in time. Why don’t we determine what is immoral in our times and judge ourselves according to that standard.”
“Yes,” Susan chimed in, “we want our heroes to be perfect.”
We want our heroes to be blameless. We want to believe that Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy never had affairs. Rather those details should give us hope that we, with all our failings and sinfulness, can rise to the heroic standards as they did.
