Category Archives: Friends

Friendship

Friends, Philosophy/Ideas, Sunsets, Travel

 

Daniel Klein lived for a while on the small Greek island called Hydra and frequently noticed a regular group of old friends who got together in a taverna where they sat on the terrace.  By a strange coincidence I remembered I had spent a couple of hours there on a sunny day in April when I was a young lad with a lovely wife. It was our first European holiday and it was wonderful. But I was a young man. I don’t think I appreciated it enough, even though I always remember it and even though we did not do much on it. It was a short visit. But a spectacular visit with nothing spectacular about it. I think we also sat on the patio of a taverna in the warm Greek sun overlooking the harbour, sipping on a drink in relaxed contentment.

 

Many years later I found out that Leonard Cohen had lived there on that island  for a long time. That was where he met Suzanne and wrote a famous song about her. A beautiful song as only Cohen can write.

 

When Klein was on the island he often sat at the taverna and from time to time noticed this group of old men. One of the old men, would stop to pick up a wild lavender and put it behind his ear and then from time to time removed it, took a sniff of it and returned it to its rightful place behind his year. A simple pleasure. Really the best kind of pleasure. Klein was reading a book of thoughts from the teachings of Epicurus an ancient Greek philosopher.

 

What kept the group together was friendship, laughs and thoughts. Klein spoke about French Philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne who had said, “I know the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from one end of the world to the other.” What a great thought. Klein then noted that “Like Epicurus, Montaigne was convinced that friendship, and the good conversation that comes with it, was the greatest pleasure available to us.”

 

Now that I am an old man, I see the wisdom in that. I am lucky to have several groups of friends. Some just men. Others, men and women. All great. All important. Life is a conversation.

Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who enjoyed simple pleasures, like sitting around with friends watching the setting sun.

Old Men and a Young Woman

Beauty, Friends, Philosophy/Ideas, Simple Life, Truth and Beauty, World of ideas

 

There was striking scene described by Daniel Klein in his marvelous book Travels with Epicurus. And it involved 4 old men.

 

On another day on a terrace overlooking the Aegean Sea . The 4  friends were enjoying the beautiful warm day and each other. They were “chatting amiably.” But then, something happened.

 

“Then quite abruptly, they all go quiet.  To a man, they are all gazing up at the top of the stone stairs that lead down from the coast path and past the taverna’s terrace. A young woman has appeared there and the wind is pressing against her blouse and skirt and her spending voluptuous body.”

 

Now we know why all the old men are paying so much attention. They may be old but can still appreciate such beauty. Klein continues,

 

“For a moment, she pauses there, perhaps enjoying the warm breeze, but more likely enjoying the effect she is having on the men looking up at her—her personal sirókos effect, indulgence…The young woman is named Elena. She is nineteen years and is a classic Greek beauty with jet-black hair; clear, light olive skin; and large dark, flashing eyes…The old men unabashedly keep their eyes on Elena as she and her grandmother draw near to where they are sitting. When Elena and the old woman are directly in front of them, all the men rise slightly from their chairs and greet them. While saying” “Good Day,” Tasso [one of the men] offers an elegant bow from his none-too supple waist. It is clearly a bow of admiration and gratitude for Elena’s beauty.”

 

The men settle down and start talking about the beautiful women they have known. These are not dreams. These are memories. The memories of old men. Old men can do that. That is what they have.

The men are not dirty old men. They are appreciative and wistful. They still appreciate beautiful women as they did when they were young. They don’t have to be voluptuous either. They know that this is all there is to it and they appreciate her. And they appreciate themselves. They are old. They know that. They are not angry about that. They are wistful, as I said, but accepting.

They can still appreciate the beauty of old women too. And even—believe it or not—old men. Beauty is by no mans confined to the young. At least so I believe, being an old man myself. “Truth is beauty and beauty is truth,” as John Keats said. But it is not just the beauty of youth. Old age too can be beautiful. Old men and old women no longer look like they did in the spring time of their lives, but what they have is still real too. Different but real.

No point in striving for what is gone. That is what counts.  Enjoy what you can. It is holy too.

Septic Simple: Life in a Boler

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Friends, The Simple Life

 

 

 

This winter 2 friends visited us from St. Boniface–Gisèle & JP. They arrived in a wonderful little RV (although they call it a trailer saying that “RV” is too grand a word for what they have).  But what they have is all they need. It is small but easy to tow.

The Boler trailer is made out of fiberglass not plastic.  It is the grand daddy of the fiberglass clones that followed it. The original was invented by a person from Manitoba who noticed that a fiberglass septic tank could be converted to an RV (or trailer if you like). Think about that towing and living in a septic tank!  Of course their Boler was never used as a septic tank. It is pristine.

Gisèle & JP are wonderful and interesting people. They meander.  They tour around the southern USA for as long as they like each winter since they retired. They usually have no firm plans, except this year there was a convention of Boler owners north of Phoenix.  People who like Boler trailers from around North America  got together to celebrate their temporary homes. They are small but convenient.

Most owners of Boler trailers think (like me) that small is beautiful.  Frankly, when I see people driving honking huge RVs and then often with a car or even SUV or truck behind that, I feel sorry for them. It reminds me of some things Henry David Thoreau said. “Most the of luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only dispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts the wisest have ever lived a more simplified life than the poor. None, can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty. ”

Voluntary poverty is not what most of us aspire to. I don’t even say that this is the goal of JP and Gisèle, but we can all profit from a more simple life.  Thoreau said to be a philosopher one must “love wisdom and to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.” Thoreau felt sorry for “that seemingly wealthy but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.” Thoreau said  houses what could just as easily be said of RVs, “when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him…for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.”

Thoreau loved his life in a little cabin that he built near Walden Pond. One day he was visited by a well-meaning lady who offered him a mat, but Thoreau declined it, because “I had no room to spare within the house, nor time to spare without to shake it.” He preferred to wipe his feet on the sod outside the shack. “It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil,” he said.

Thoreau believed that people were possessed by their possessions. I think he meant that in the most serious sense of “possessed.” “The more you have of such things the poorer you are.” Or as he also said, “Men have become tools of their tools.”

Thoreau was happy and content. He had time to devote to more important things—the things he really wanted to do. Such as inspecting snowstorms, birds and flowers.  Personally I would substitute sunsets for snowstorms. Thoreau bragged, “my greatest skill is to want but little.” I think JP and Gisèle have that skill. I wish I had more of it. They also had what Vicky Robbin called a “high joy to stuff ratio.” I would like that too. They know how to live the good life.

The Cabal

Friends

 

 

This secret group may not look dangerous, but governments, fish, and mean-spirited fanatics fear them. They meet about once every month or two in secret. No one really knows why. Not even the participants. The purpose of the meetings is not known but it is assumed they are up to no good. The only thing known about them is that they all went to High School together in Steinbach, Manitoba, in the same class nearly 50 years ago. That seems astonishing given how young and vigorous they appear.

They are known as The Cabal. Although labeled by some as miscreants they have always denied any connection to any insurrectionary forces. Unsurprisingly, no one has stepped forward to vouch for their good character. Some say they are the intellectual leaders of their generation. Others hint of rapidly approaching senility.

Only one thing is certain—they enjoy sposs. Sposs is fun that only Mennonites are permitted to have. Others don’t qualify. For the first time ever I shall (bravely) name them. They are from left to right: Dave Tiger Loewen, the spiritual leader of the group, Chris “Karlokoff” Toews, Lou Reimer, Larry “Clancy” Giesbrecht, John “Hans” Neufeld, and Paul Loewen.

Like Abou Ben Adhem may they go in peace.