I grow old, I grow old

On the eve of my 72nd birthday I am thinking a lot about T.S. Elliot. Specifically, I am thinking about The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Do I dare eat a peach?

Flashback to Bard College, 1974. My English professor--Peter Sourian--is leading a seminar called Literature Between the Wars. This is my first introduction to T.S. Elliot and I confess, I think the poem is clever, but perhaps silly.

I was only nineteen. Poor Prufrock, I opined--too timid to eat a peach. And then, there was another classmate’s extremely funny impersonation of T.S. Elliot reciting the poem.

I grow old, I grow old

I shall wear my trousers rolled...

But, here I am--over fifty years later, standing at the brink of seventy-two years, and I do think I finally understand why Prufrock might dither. Suppose he were to bite down on the pit and suppose he breaks a filling? Suppose he drops the peach, stoops down to pick it up and then as he straightens himself--he pulls his back!

Surgery, rehab, physical therapy. Months of it.

Ah, but here’s another line from T.S. Elliot:

Who is the third who always walks beside you...

I do not know whether a man or a woman

As it turns out, while we dither over whether we should eat a eat a peach or not--there is someone/something walking beside you, watching over you. In fact, perhaps more than one person.

I am familiar with this, because in 1962 when I was eight years old, I had such a visitation on the Connecticut Turnpike. A day at the beach and then a drive with my mother in the August heat--and then a crash. I flew through the windshield, ending up on the grass along the side of the highway. That’s when I saw them--two girls a little older than me, dressed in white. Angels, I decided. Teen angels.

I know, I know. Magical thinking and all that, but I have never forgotten about my teen angels. They are always with me, and they’re the reason why—at my ripe old age--I dare to eat a peach.

Creative Friends--you may or may not have had a visitation from angels. But, if you look around you, you’ll see this--you’re living with angels. Perhaps just one, perhaps a dozen. Perhaps more. Know this, there is goodness in this world, so ahead and take a bite into that peach, whether it be real or metaphorical.

Oh, and on Monday, wish me a Happy 72nd!

Love,

Jamie