"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL"

William Shakespeare

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"A HORSE, A HORSE! MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE!"
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I hated computers. We didn't get off to a good start. "AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE."  Several, in fact.

First of all, in my second career, my company issued us all an early model computer, a Model T, if you will, and deducted a hundred a month from our pay...from then on. Oh yes. ("THE SMALLEST WORM WILL TURN, BEING TRODDEN UPON.") It was a lap top, and they sent a 21 inch monitor for stationary office purposes---to conserve the lap top's screen. I never even took the monitor out of the box.

My interest in that computer was "DEAD AS A DOORNAIL!"

You see, this computer would never do anything I wanted it to, and I could never get out of a page. "IT WAS GREEK TO ME." The ALT, CTRL, DEL buttons were worn smooth.  I'd take the company secretary out to lunch once a week and get her to submit all those boring forms to the company. When I retired after twenty five years, I boxed that computer and its attachments and sent it back to them, as required, even though I had paid for it. I went out and got a six pack of diet Dr. Peppers and celebrated, big time. I was "MERRY AS THE DAY IS LONG!"

As I sipped those Dr. Peppers, I thought to myself, it'll be "FOREVER AND A DAY" before I touch another computer!

That's where things rested for fourteen years. No computer for me. My wife, a computer expert, did however help me to write a friend, beginning in 2000, on her computer. Jimmy Whatley, a classmate of the CHS class of '51, and I began writing letters once a week or more,  He loved his computer and we got into some fun correspondence. The wife would set it all up and I'd type it, and she'd do whatever you had to do to send it. I had forgotten the expression "BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT," and one day I had a three-pager going to J.W. and I hit something---don't ask me what button, you know computers---and lo, to my chagrin, my beautiful letter was GONE, and I was worn out mentally and physically.

(And her computer was supposed to be the "BE ALL AND END ALL" of computers!)

I stomped out to my garage, got a diet PEPSI, and almost smoked that big stale Churchill cigar that came from Conway-Stewart with my old-fashioned Churchill fountain pen. But I was afraid I might get sick! I said: "GOOD RIDDANCE," and didn't touch the computer for two weeks!

Now then, a funny thing happened on Christmas,  2010. We were all around the fire, "FANCY FREE", opening our packages one by one (at first), and my daughter-in-law received a little thing about  the size of a book and it was in a nice little tan leather case...and I watched them fooling with it and I heard "computer," "IPAD," and words like that. My son brought it over and showed it to me--- there weren't that many buttons to learn, not many at all. Hmmm. (I guess I was wondering to myself if it was "HIGH TIME" for me to get back into the computer game.)

All of a sudden, "FOR NO RHYME OR REASON," "AT ONE FELL SWOOP," "IN THE BLINKING OF AN EYE," I said: "I want one of those!" The next day, my son and wife went down to the Apple Store. The day-after-Christmas crowd "BEGGAR'D ALL DESCRIPTION". They braved massive lines, and at 11:45 a.m. came walking in with my new IPAD---"HENRY"---destined to be one of the best friends I ever had. (I take back all I ever said about computers.) In my disinterest, I had never realized the amount of information out there. NEVER.

Now, as to how I got started writing---back in CHS high school English class,  Mrs. Barton one day challenged the class to enter a New Mexico "Hire The Handicapped: It's Good Business" contest. Jerry Roberts and I entered that contest and forgot about it. One day the results came back: Jerry had won THIRD in the state, and I had won SECOND. Our pics were in the Clovis News-Journal, and one day, that summer, I came home from plowing all day, and "AS GOOD LUCK WOULD HAVE IT," there was an envelope with a twenty-five dollar US Savings Bond in it.

Wow! What good luck! "LAY IT ON WITH A TROWEL,"  I thought!!

In my first career I did a considerable amount of writing. Several friends had said later on, "You ought to be writing." One day, the wife said those exact words to me. She said: "We'll set up a blog, you write, and I'll edit it, and put it on!" I had only three words: "What's a blog?" True. (Today, I don't really like the term at  all--- I prefer "post.")

So we started.  That first productive year, 2011, I wanted to jump-start my mind; thus we took eleven of THE GREAT COURSES in one year. The subjects were varied, and I am listing our courses, feeling that the reader will be interested in the kind of courses that are available:

  

   1. "THE ART OF READING,"----Dr. Timothy Spurgin

   2. "THE CATHEDRAL"----Dr. William R.Cook, splendid

   3. "THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT"---Dr. Bob Brier, 48 lectures

   4. "THE GENIUS OF MICHELANGELO"----Dr. William E Wallace
        splendid

   5. ""EXPERIENCING HUBBLE"----Dr. David M. Meyer

   6. "EXPERIENCING ROME---A VISUAL EXPLORATION OF
        ANTIQUITY'S GREATEST EMPIRE"---Dr Steven L. Tuck

   7. "THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION: A CENTURY OF
        CONTROVERSY"---- Dr. Edward J. Larson

   8. "HOW TO LOOK AT AND UNDERSTAND GREAT ART"----
        Dr. Sharon L. Hirsh

        

   AND three writing courses----

   9. "ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE: HOW TO ENGAGE AND
        WRITE ABOUT ANYTHING"----Dr. Dorsey Armstrong

  10. "WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION"---Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo

  11. "BUILDING BETTER SENTENCES: THE WRITER'S CRAFT"
         Dr. Brooks Landon   (This last may have been the most helpful course
         of all.)

Poetry was never a strong suit of mine--reading it or writing it. Reading, it was always hard to grasp. An Irish man-of-the-cloth and dear friend of mine, whose religion apparently permitted a colorful  word now and then, loved poetry. I told him of my difficulties with some poetry---he said (in his delightful brogue): "Hell, Mil, you don't have to understand it, just read it and enjoy it."

 After reading "THE APPLE TREES OF OLEMA," by Robert Hass, and Dr. Landon's lecture on "RHYTHM IN PROSE," I gained a new appreciation and feel for non-rhyming poetry.  If one stops and thinks, he sees that good rhyming poetry can be very difficult---you may either have to force a rhyme or adapt the thought to achieve the rhyme, (or is that the same thing?!) We should admire many of the early English and American poets, for their skills.

In college at HSU, a good friend of mine, June, from CHS, and I wound up together in a whole semester of Robert Browning, a difficult poet to understand. In fact, one day a person asked him, "Sir, what did you mean when you wrote such-and-such?" Browning replied: "Sir, when I wrote that, God and I knew what it meant; now only God knows!" Suffice it to say, that after sixty years, I am still working on "Fra Lippo Lippi."

So-o-o, I hope this story hasn't been "TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING," or a "WILD GOOSE CHASE," either, but the big news is that the editor and I, for our mental improvement and sharpening project for 2013, will not be taking eleven more courses, but will order the ONE biggie: "HOW TO READ AND UNDERSTAND SHAKESPEARE." 24 lectures. "We're going to do it!"  (Then you may find my writings sprinkled with Shakespearean quotes!)

After all, can you pass up a 3/4 off sale, with free shipping?!

This is: "SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html

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BY MIL
6/23/13