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 The guy over there in the black-and-white photograph looks to me like a cross between John Wayne and Robert Young. When I was a kid of fourteen and fifteen I worked summers and weekends at a movie theatre. I watched a lot of films just because they were flickering in front of my face. I was too young then to close my eyes to anything.I suffered through some John Wayne movies three times a day, seven days a week. Imagine riding tall and stiff in the saddle, puny sidekick to The Duke, into the same bloody American sunset, twenty-one times in a row, with brief breaks between takes to poop out some of the popcorn. By the time the week was up I needed a shrink with Robert Young's saccharin bedside manner. I never bought either actor's performance, but each man was responsible for helping to prop up part of the American myth; and so was the guy up there in the black-and-white, the paternalistic suit who comforts his moony-eyed, worried woman by waving money in her face. I didn't intend to talk with you about movie actors, poopy popcorn and staged sunsets. I wanted to talk about the work ethic, that aspect of the American myth that lately waves ten-dollar bills in my face. I don't want to work anymore for sake of money. I've worked too many years for someone else's sad fascination with control. I want to throw a tantrum, retire to my home office and write my butt off for sake of pleasure and posterity. I own no practical choice in the matter, but I just don't want to do it anymore. I'm tired and I'm disappointed. I have no time left to waste. I'm old enough now to close my eyes to what seems useless. I'm fairly certain that Mr. Money and Mrs. Moony are dead by now. A photographer snapped this picture back in 1944. I hope they both made it through the siege with no more than minor wounds. I hope they died free from dependence on someone else's myth. I hope that somewhere today they 're reading what I'm writing about them. Maybe this is part of what they left to posterity. The cutline attached to this photograph reads: "What good is a $10.00 raise…if it then costs you $12.00 more to live?" This line leads into a half-page-long list of tips to citizens, tips for helping the USA march on to victory. *** 1. Buy only what you need. 2. Don't try to profit from the war. 3. Pay no more than ceiling prices. 4. Pay taxes willingly. 5. Pay off your old debts. 6. If you haven't a savings account, start one. 7. Buy and hold war bonds. Remember -- Hitler stops at nothing! Had I met this magazine many years ago, I might today be able to retire to my writing. *** 1. I didn't need the damned computers. I might have written with a pen. 2. If life is a battle, then I should have sold arms and cut loose soon enough to hug myself. 3. You can't touch most ceilings without climbing a ladder. But who needs the dust? 4. John Wayne, you're full of shit. I just don't want the sheriff to arrest my popcorn butt. 5. I own no debts I didn't create for myself. 6. If you have a savings account, don't touch it, but don't leave it to posterity. 7. Okay, but when's this bloody movie going to end? *** Thanks for stopping by to visit us here at SpilledBeans.com. If you'd like to be notified whenever something new is posted to SpilledBeans.com, then please join the Spilled Beans notification list. -- Con affetto, Anthony V. Toscano, Editor SpilledBeans.com  |
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