{"id":313,"date":"2021-03-19T08:02:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T13:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/?p=313"},"modified":"2024-11-08T13:42:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T19:42:28","slug":"ssw-for-march-18-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/archives\/313","title":{"rendered":"Water on Mars, Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Nancy Sinatra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SSW for March 18, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now Part 2 of this semester\u2019s notebook begins. I reflect: the process is becoming more a \u201cthing,\u201d certainly for me personally: I\u2019m doing what I ask my students to do: think all week about possible topics; plan for a good session; start early so I have momentum; try not to think too much about specific lines of possible development\u2014so as not to forget them by \u201cwriting\u201d them (in water, like John Keats\u2019s name); try to keep open to the late discovery of a topic; try to let the discovery energize me; try to get some work done that needs getting done; try to find the meaning in life, as in \u201cwhat, really, needs to be done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still facing the abyss, looking into eternity … trying to make sense of it all … trying to make sense of this single moment in time. I read in the news about water on Mars\u2014there was a lot of it, apparently, but we\u2019re talking about 3 billion years ago. That\u2019s literally something that some scientists have said: Mars was such and such 3 billion years ago<\/em> (but now all that water has gone somewhere\u2014in the rocks below the surface? Into outer space?). Three billion years ago: That\u2019s so long before any of my three topics of today: vaccine purgatory, Nancy Sinatra, and really going back, Cicero, who, ancient as he is, still is not all that close to even one billion years ago. All these billions of years bang against the limits of my comprehension and imagination, kinda like the trillions of dollars being spent so lavishly and stingily and carefully and crudely in President Biden\u2019s Coronavirus stimulus package. I think of Terry\u2019s comment about how he conceives of amounts like that: he can\u2019t. So, it has no meaning. And we\u2019re probably all in Terry\u2019s boat, as we throw up our hands at the seas of thousands and millions and billions and trillions, and figure it must all work out somehow\u2014whether it\u2019s through making things up (printing money? declaring victory and moving on? Imploding in insolvency?) or just hoping for the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My three topics cover some range: the news of the day, the heartstrings of a daughter\u2019s devotion; the connections to eternity and fleeting urgency and eternal resonance\u2014if disguised in continuing preoccupations that have no hope of permanence, despite how persistent they\u2019ve been in continuing on. As for this last, I\u2019m thinking of Cicero, who both seems so relevant and so completely gone from existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good starting point\u2014a theme of my notebooks lately\u2014is the \u201cdrive in\u201d: I drive in on Cicero Ave., so Cicero the man is \u201cright there\u201d\u2014kinda\u2014living on, despite the avenue having nothing really Ciceronian about it. It\u2019s large, I suppose, like the man. I can\u2019t stop thinking of Cicero\u2019s mortality: He was 63 when he died, my age, and he had accomplished so much. How can not every human relate to Cicero? He was given privilege at the start of his life born into the \u201cmiddle class\u201d; he had family he loved (Brother Quintus in De Oratore<\/em>); he achieved greatness in oratory, law, and politics. And he died before his time\u2014because<\/em> he was so important. He had<\/em> to be murdered. So, he never had the chance of fading away, becoming irrelevant and forgotten. I remember you, Cicero; I read your treatise of \u201coratory\u201d\u2014one of many you wrote on that topic, and I can see your development in theory, your love of your brother, your admiration for your mentor, Crassus, your nostalgia for an earlier, happier time. I think of the reflective, \u201cend of life\u201d tone of De Oratore<\/em>, a book written while you were in your mid-fifties\u2014still a man with a lot of living left, but nonetheless, a man who was looking back, looking to teach, looking to create a dialogue of friendly and different voices trying to figure out just what is it about persuasion, performance, public life, responsibility, exploitation, strategy\u2014all the stuff that goes into, surrounds, comes out of effective, responsible, service-oriented speech? I feel you right here, in my mind, Cicero. Yet, I also feel those nagging questions: Why all this effort? Why are we remembering you? Why did you have to be killed, after such a valuable life, at a point in your life when retirement beckoned, with those pursuits away from the forum and Senate\u2014the reading, and math, and music, and leisure you talked about in De Oratore<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe my sadness in reading you this year is my connection to you, at age 63 this year\u2014this pandemic year, when thoughts of mortality are heavy in the air each day, despite me being almost one week into my post first-dose vaccination. Yesterday\u2019s front page Tribune story was about people my age\u2014or a tad older: the 64-year-olds who were too young to be in that over-65 1a group, first to be vaccinated, but who, as folk approaching their mid-60s, were also in a somewhat increased risk group because of age. The article spoke of the state of \u201cvaccine purgatory\u201d some people this age felt\u2014both too young and too old, kinda neglected or not taken care of, as they wait their turn for a vaccine. But who, at whatever age, does not<\/em> think this way? We are all in purgatory\u2014waiting, uneasy, unsettled. For though we may have led full lives\u2014who knows? Will some Mark Antony put the hit on us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article spoke of a couple who had retired last year. The man pictured and his wife were enjoying their retirement, but yet there was this cloud over them. Was it the fear of pestilence and death that was afflicting people like them all over the world, and no place worse than right here in America? It could be. The Page 1 picture was flattering\u2014I looked at that 64-year-old, and thought: Yes, he\u2019s got some miles left on him. If I didn\u2019t know this was a story about his age, I wouldn\u2019t have thought of his age. He had a smile, not too many wrinkles, some hair on top, not too thin and not totally snowy. He looked good\u2014happy\u2014ready for the good life. I thought: how am I looking? In some ways, I\u2019m at my best; I certainly, as I\u2019ve often said, don\u2019t feel any different from when I was 18\u2026. But I am different \u2026 by some 45 years. I didn\u2019t have to wait, by the way, for my vaccine\u2014such being the benefits of the hypertension and diabetes that my 45-years-post-18 have brought. So, I\u2019ve acquired issues\u2014but I don\u2019t feel them. I feel connected and disconnected to the man in the paper, and I wonder how Cicero would have felt to be 63 in 2021, and part of me thinks he would have been just the same, and that\u2019s a comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The warmest comfort in this drama of \u201cgrasping at something that lasts\u201d in the midst of disappearing-water-on Mars after billions of years, comes, however, with the melancholy confirmation today, on the ride in down Cicero Ave., that Nancy Sinatra, after 14 years of being \u201cNancy for Frank,\u201d will be airing her final show this Sunday\u2014thus, closing off a significant portion of her life, and concluding this picture she has created of \u2026 what? A daughter\u2019s love? A music expert\u2019s analysis? An insider\u2019s look at the context behind the art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so surprised at how touched I\u2019ve been by her show these many years. Have I been an XM customer that long? My first satellite radio predates \u201cNancy for Frank\u201d; it even predates \u201cSiriusly Sinatra,\u201d as the station was called \u201cFrank\u2019s Place\u201d back then. The station has evolved over the years and across the name change\u2014with all of the changes improvements, with one exception (where are you, O, Jonathan Schwartz?). Nancy\u2019s tenure doesn\u2019t seem to be situated in time: she exists, reflecting “Sinatra,” always there, as indeed she has always been. The first child, the inspiration for Phil Silvers, the daughter, the sister, who, during her tenure on the station had to say goodbye to her brother and mother\u2014sic transit gloria mundi<\/em>\u2014losses we all felt as family, because that\u2019s what happened in this tenure: we became family. Nancy was herself always, and that honesty made it so easy to be with her. She didn\u2019t need to argue a case for her father, but she lived that case so naturally and lovingly. I\u2019ll leave to others to characterize the art of her programming, but it was artful\u2014playing whole albums, always with attributions and stories, geeking out with Chuck Granata, signing off with \u201csleep warm Poppa; sleep warm, Frank\u2026.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first (has it really been 14 years??) it didn\u2019t seem like Nancy\u2014or like her voice. Such a singer she was, and such an alluring young woman\u2014of course, in those boots. I always thought of her with that power<\/em>\u2014walking (that\u2019s what they were made for, you see) but not only that, but walking over<\/em> something, on<\/em> to something. But this Nancy, with Frank, seemed to have gotten someplace\u2014and that place was one of appreciation, love\u2014and scholarship. I found so much more to appreciate in Frank Sinatra through the person he was through the person Nancy is. Such a gift she\u2019s given us, in so many layers and in such beauty. We have the music\u2014her father\u2019s and hers, yes, and we have the context of family and memories and other artists and easy humility and pride about it, because that\u2019s the easy truth of it. Rest well, Nancy. No sleep yet, okay? But warmth, yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SSW for March 18, 2021 And now Part 2 of this semester\u2019s notebook begins. I reflect: the process is becoming more a \u201cthing,\u201d certainly for me personally: I\u2019m doing what I ask my students to do: think all week about possible topics; plan for a good session; start early so I have momentum; try not … Continue reading Water on Mars, Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Nancy Sinatra<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-life-in-general","category-ssw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}