Greybeards at Play

There've been many inquiries as to Mina's Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, and its pertinence to consulting with the criminally insane. This I note with both pride and a bit of offense taken, since there've been none so many inquiries about yours truly. Makes me want to hint at a life of nefarious escapade just to pique interest, but I'll restrain myself.

Thereby very much reminding me that, as the old boy Gilbert Keith Chesterton, pictured above, doth quote, "Marriage is an adventure, like going to war." Who needs the nefarious escapade?

In my infantile pique, however, I will defer questions about the Mesmerizing Mina and address the esteemed G. K., whose profound insight into the political process serves as Last Word: "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected."

He's a man after my heart (and no, I don't intended that as a statement of sexual orientation) for other reasons, not the least of which is a shared, shall we say, disorientation. Evidently, like Others Who Will Otherwise Go Unnamed, he quite often would forget not only where he was going and how he was to get there, but where he actually was when he arrived somewhere. It is reported that he was repeatedly obliged to post telegrams to his wife to the effect of reporting on his whereabouts (if he had established that) and asking "Where ought I to be?" - a question I have repeatedly put to Mina across the years, and one she was either far too willing or none too eager to address.

I note an edge. Does this mean I do or do not miss her?

But G. K. Prolific. Eighty books, 4000 essays. Many poems, short stories. It is said that his play Magic was the inspiration for Ingmar Bergman's The Magician, quite my favorite of Bergman's ouevre.

As to reports of his anti-Semitism, I cannot speak. I will leave that to Mina, counselor to the criminally insane. As well as veterinarian. Let us not forget that credential, since it is crucial to an understanding of her character and life's work, although...

My, my. I note my allotted blogging time is quite up. Will have to continue the exploration of the Miraculous Mina at another point. Serves her right, for being gone so long.

Let us verbally close on the following brilliant observation of our erstwhile hero, G. K., whose purported anti-Semitism will remain un-understood, a bygone we must let go.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

And let us visually close with the following photograph of a lovely begonia, under which, for reasons we cannot begin to ascertain, is written, GK Chesterton. Well, I do subscribe to the wisdom of letting bygones be bygones.

Or begonias be... begonias.



For aren't we all....