“I was talking to a moth the other evening he was trying to break into an electric light bulb and fry himself on the wires. Why do you fellows pull this stunt I asked him, because it is the conventional thing for moths or why if that had been an uncovered candle instead of an electric light bulb you would now be a small unsightly cinder. Have you no sense?
Plenty of it he answered, but at times we get tired of using it. We get bored with the routine and crave beauty and excitement. Fire is beautiful and we know that if we get too close it will kill us, but what does that matter? It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up in beauty, than to live a long time and be bored all the while, so we wad all our life up into one little roll, and then we shoot the roll. That is what life is for. It is better to be part of beauty for one instant and then cease to exist, than to exist forever and never be a part of beauty. Our attitude toward life is come easy go easy. We are like human beings used to be before they became too civilized to enjoy themselves.” Archy
That is from the work of Don Marquis. He created Archy, the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat, who left poems on his typewriter, by jumping on the keys. Don was born in 1878 in Illinois and became an author, newspaper columnist, poet, artist, and as you can see humorist. He wrote 35 books, drew cartoons for the New Yorker magazine and wrote columns for the New York Sun and Saturday Evening Post. In 1943 the US Navy launched the USS Don Marquis in tribute to him.
Don says a lot about how I think. It is easy to hid from beauty, by not thinking about it, or by thinking that beauty is something foreign to me. There is always something more beautiful, more appealing, more exciting, than the life I create. Somehow beauty becomes a desire, rather than an innate trait. So, the search begins to attract beauty into my life, by acquiring things, and establishing my dominance over my fellow man and my external world. Just like the moth, I seek beauty with fire in my eyes and excitement in my quest. But the beauty I seek eludes me, and I wander through life too civilized to enjoy the gift I always had within me.
The moth had it right when he said finding beauty for a moment is worth a lifetime of searching. I am beauty if I think I am. I then experience what I think. I’m able to express my beauty in my words, actions and give my beauty to all life. I then become my desire, and expand in joy.
Beauty can come easy, if I allow it. Beauty can go easy, if I give it to all I meet. Beauty can be civilized if I enjoy who I am.
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Hal Manogue is a poet and author of Short Sleeves A Book For Friends. Insightful thoughts for the 21st century. Hal’s 2006 collection and 2007 collection are available in bookstores and online. |
