SAY WHAT? Today’s entry – October 7, 2013 – if by Eugene Walter. It is an essay about “Maturity.” In 1995, when James Walker was a senior at Bayside High School in Daphne, Alabama, he put together a little anthology entitled “Deeper Than Monday Night Football: Thoughts On High School and Beyond.” He wrote to number of poets and writers and asked them to share their high school experiences. Among those who contributed to the anthology were: Erma Bombeck, X.J. Kennedy, Roald Hoffmann who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Charles Rodning, and Eugene Walter. This anthology was published by Negative Capability Press. Mad Dogs and Maturity Eugene Walter I have been bitten by dogs with rabies, mad dogs, on three separate occasions in my life. Each time, the dog simply came up and chose me out of a crowd. The first time, I was six years old and had gone with my father to buy tomatoes at a farm out in the country. There was a table in front of the farmhouse with baskets full of eggplants, figs, and tomatoes. There were about eight people about. The dog, never before seen by anyone there, strolled out from under the house, knocked me over, bit my cheek, and knocked out a loose tooth. The next time was some ten years later, in town, when I was with a group of friends on a front porch. A big black dog came down the street, walked up the sidewalk, up the steps, bit my leg, and left. The third time was almost an identical situation, three years later. “You must be terrified of dogs!” people have said ever since. And, “You must hate dogs!” Neither of these comments is true. As a matter of fact, I feel a close kinship with dogs and all animals. I gave up trying to explain this to all those people who tell others what they probably feel, or should feel. The ones I like are those who say, hearing the story (I never tell it; my friends and relations do) of my three encounters “How do you feel about dogs after all that?” I reply, “I feel close to dogs and irritated with people who inform me that I should fear or hate them. “ I feel that “growing up” or “achieving maturity” is when you logically examine your feelings, identify then, defend them . . . and know when to say nothing.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 09:25:54 +0000
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