Wednesday: Memories

Funny about tragedies in life, they send us spinning through times past. Our mind recalls moments of joy and sadness. Chaos brings out the painter of the kaleidoscope that we call memories.

For some reason this morning I was remembering an old family friend, Henny Youngman. Not many people will remember Henny. He was a stand-up comedian and known as the King of the One Liners. He never made it to be the top dog because people like Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Milton Berle kept getting the main billing. However, for a little ugly Jewish boy Henny did really well.

I wrote in my morning muse this day, how Henny was responsible for my marriage to my second husband Lee Jacobs. Lee died in January three years ago from brain cancer. A brilliant man, he was the epitome of comedy and tragedy rolled into one package. Lee studied English at Ohio University. He had completed all his course work to receive his PH. D. And had written his dissertation on Chaucer and the Wife of Bath. In disgust with academia, Lee refused to turn in his dissertation and walked away from academia to create his own publishing house created to preserve the history of magic. Lee was my personal tutor in English and, in fact, he did such a good job that when I returned to college at the age of 33, I tested out of all English courses and never took one class. Yet today, I am what Lee wanted to be but could never achieve. I am a professional published author. I would not have become the writer that I am today without the help of Lee Jacobs.

My friend Patrick said to me yesterday: Your life is never boring. And this is the ultimate truth. In sixty-one years I cannot remember a boring time. Dramatic. Chaotic. Fun. Shocking. Creative. Maybe, even diabolical but never boring. There is an old blessing or is it a curse: May you live in interesting times. I have. I do. And, I will continue.

May you live in interesting times creating memories that will carry you into the future where when the time comes that you are sitting at the final stages of life, you will have the most interesting of memories.