Actress on Demand

These paragraphs comes from a character in my (unpublished) novel Standing Outside the Door that I wrote in March 2017. The events of this week (January 20, 2021) brought this poignantly to mind. Martha is the wife of a pastor whose career has collapsed in scandal. She is talking to a clergy colleague of her husband Ron.  

 “I told you I’ve been working on this plan for a long time,” Martha moved on. “My awareness of what was happening didn’t dawn on me instantly, but very slowly came into focus. I knew I could continue quite a while after intimacy ceased, and especially when I claimed my own space behind the work nook doors. When I started taking classes at the community college, I quickly realized that I needed something more substantive than office skills, but a way to present myself as a professional, even if I didn’t have a degree. I focused on accounting until I could get certified as a CPA, and some business management classes. I could handle the part-time receptionist job for the medical clinic along with taking classes. I spent the money I made on classes and put the rest in a savings account. My real livelihood was still coming from being actress on demand for the Pastor Ron Show. I still feel no regrets about doing that while I prepared to launch my plan with adequate resources to be sure it would work. What I didn’t realize was the perfection of the timing of Ron’s departure and the invitation of the medical clinic to become their full-time office manager. I suppose some pious people would say God was manipulating the timing. I can certainly acknowledge God’s role in putting my plan together, but I was the one who had to work it.”

...

Martha took a deep breath before going on. “Though it took a few weeks for this to play out, the die was cast the next day after you came to me and to the children on behalf of the Committee on Ministry. By then, not only were Ron and I not sleeping together, we were not communicating except for essential business matters required to project the model couple and family of a prestigious pastor. Ron, Jr. and Renee seemed to stay in character even in the face of their daily experiences to the contrary. I would have to say that with puberty, Rhonda recognized the charade for what it was. On Sundays she played her role perfectly: dress, vocabulary, biblical facility, demeanor. I don’t know that she ever complained about the family or exposed her father to her friends. As near as I could tell, she was building her life without us. I don’t know how she did it, but she figured out that her father had a series of other women, one after another, before I moved into the work nook." 

In Praise of Old Lovers - listening

Back in November I posted words that I hoped could become a song: In Praise of Old Lovers. I sent them to my sons and grandsons who are actually musical. As much as I love music, no one would call me musical (probably explains my school days as a percussionist, though I didn't like being called a drummer). Well, my grandson Isaac (a junior music education major at Grove City College, PA: piano and trumpet specialties) wrote a score for the lyrics and recruited his sister Hannah to sing it with him. You can hear them on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/22WWhYMehCc

I have reposted the words here again so you can follow along.

In Praise of Old Lovers

© 2020 Norman Stolpe

 

I wish for all you young lovers

Fruitful passion, mature and ripe.

The welcome wine of old lovers

Whose  arms wrapped round ages of grief.

 

Refrain

Sing, yes sing, of old lovers - 

Radiant stars shine in the world.

 

I wish for all you young lovers

Serendipities outstriping your dreams

Love grown old enough for savoring

Abundant feast from Delight Mountain.

 

Refrain

Sing, yes sing, of old lovers -

Radiant stars shine in the world.

 

I wish for all of us old lovers

To treasure all the twists and turns

Adventures that we could neither

Prepare for nor even imagine.

 

Refrain

Sing, yes sing, of old lovers - 

Radiant stars shine in the world.

 

I wish for all us old lovers

As we are walking hand in hand

To nourish and sustain each other

On our last journey in this land.

 

Bridge

Lovers together young and old

Shine as radiant stars in the world.

 

Lovers together, old  and young

With arms and hearts linked together

So none of us will walk alone,

But singing and dancing together. 

Refrain

Sing, yes sing, of old lovers - 

Radiant stars shine in the world.

 

Make No Mistake

Those being identified, charged, and arrested in connection with the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 are not being targeted because they are white supremacists, conspiracy theory advocates, conservatives, or Republicans. They are being held accountable for their actions assaulting the core of the US Republic when they besieged the US Capitol and interfered with the orderly business of Congress. Whatever you think of their views as white supremacists, conspiracy theory advocates, conservatives, and Republicans, plenty of them who did not participate in that melee are at no risk of being arrested for holding or expressing their views.

I Can't Help But Wonder ...

 if those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 thought they would be immune from arrest and prosecution because they were there to support the President?

or

not just in the past week, or since the election, or in the last five years but throughout his career, how many  reputations, livelihoods, careers, marriages, family relationships, friendships have been trashed because of loyalty to Donald Trump? 

Could See It Coming

 Revisit Trump's rallies and his demeanor in the debates when he was campaigning for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, and the events of this past week are not only expected but inevitable.

Personal Responsibility for Actions and Words

Taking personal responsibility for one’s words and actions is a hallmark of human maturity. Personal responsibility is embraced and articulated at the core of conservative social and political philosophy. Of course, personal responsibility is essential to liberal thinking too.

Thus, those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 cannot evade responsibility for their actions by suggesting President Trump or others in the crowd made them do it.

Neither can any who addressed the crowd, including President Trump, evade their responsibility for their words. Words do have power, and once spoken, words cannot be retracted or edited.

To be sure, most of the people gathered in front of the US Capitol on January 6 did not breach the perimeter with its barriers and police officers. Whether they cheered on those who did or dispersed rather than get caught up in the melee, their presence was some expression of distrust and even hostility toward Congress. Still and all, thousands did break through to storm the US Capitol and hundreds made it inside the building. All must be held accountable for their actions as well as their words.

To be clear, I affirm the right of those who gathered on January 6 to assemble and express their objection to the election, even if I disagree or think them misguided. I have always opposed violence and destruction of property in demonstrations, protests, and other first amendment expressions of free speech and assembly, including those causes I affirm. Nevertheless, storming the US Capitol is of unprecedented character and magnitude.   

Donald’s World

Like a number of my recent posts, I am not linking this to social media, but posting it here as a way of getting the rumblings out of my mind.

Donald Trump seems to live in a world of his own imagination. Those who are attracted to this world are welcome to join him, as long as they accept his version of truth. Those who question him are angrily expelled. When reality conflicts with his world, he dismisses it as fake. This was evident in his interaction with his rivals for the Republican nomination for President in 2015-16. Rather than engage in dialog he ridiculed and mocked them. He attacked the institution of the free press as fake news, not just challenges to specific news outlets. Especially in the realms of climate change and environmental stewardship, he disdained science as an opponent of his agenda. When covid-19 was first recognized in December 2019, he dismissed it as a political attack first from his favorite nemesis China and then cast the US CDC as his political enemy rather than accepting it as a partner in addressing the public health of the citizens of the US. The rejection of science carried over into discouraging common sense measure of health protection and promotion of inappropriate and even dangerous prevention and treatments. When he lost re-election in 2020, he has persisted in insisting that he won by a landslide and that the election was stolen by fraud, even though dozens of suits in courts with Republican and even Trump appointed judges – including the US Supreme Court with his own appointees there, Republican governors and legislatures, and Republican election officials – even his own appointees in his own cabinet – affirmed again and again that the election results were correct. Whether he intended it or not, his words to his ardent supporters in Washington, D.C. did incite their storming of the US Capitol. This disrupted and delayed their work of certifying the votes of the Electoral College. Even now he insists he won the election, and thousands who want to live in that world with him persist not just in agreement but determination to continue to fight for the Trump imaginary world. Yesterday’s events do seem to have jolted some politicians with reality, but they will certainly face Donald Trump’s wrath, as he seems unable to tolerate variation of opinion or constructive dialog, even among those who have shared his world.