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Tuesday, 4 June 2013

"I thank God there is no God to see what we've done to the world" ("part-time pessimist" Charles Simic)

Posted on 18:00 by Ashish Chaturvedi
"Recently a reviewer complained that my new book of poems is much too preoccupied with death. He appeared to suggest that I ought to be more upbeat, dispensing serene wisdom in the autumn of my life, instead of reminding readers every chance I get of their mortality. Just you wait, I said to myself, till you reach my age and start going to funerals of your friends. Nobody warns us about that when we are young, and even if they ever did, it goes in one ear and out the other."
-- poet and essayist Charles Simic, in a
NYRB blogpost,
"Looking It in the Face"

by Ken

I'm not much of a poetry guy, so I'm not up much on Charles Simic's poetry. But over the years he has become a cherished companion thanks to his cultural and historical ruminations in the New York Review of Books.

"Of course, I never really believed it would happen," Simic begins this lovely new piece. "Grow old, I mean."
I knew it was coming, saw the evidence of it in my friends and relatives, but despite that, I acted as if aging had nothing to do with me. Even having people congratulate me on my seventy-fifth birthday doesn't sound right to me. Either they or I must have screwed up the count somewhere along the way. Knowing the truth, of course, is better than fooling oneself, but who wants to look truth in the face every morning?

Over the years, I've watched a few people on their deathbeds and they were not entirely convinced either about what was coming. They held on to a small hope that they would turn out to be exceptions to the rule. "You'll get caught," I remember telling a couple of chums in my youth who were planning to break into a garage in the neighborhood that night and carry off some tools. How they cackled! How they made fun of me! Dummies get nabbed, but not smart guys like them, they assured me; and promptly found themselves in jail the next day.
I know a lot of people who are likely to be delighted by Simic's own fudging of the reality of growing old.
On certain days I feel like a car with too many miles on its speedometer. There's a knock in the engine, the radiator overheats, the oil leaks, the body is rusty, the upholstery is ripped and stained, one windshield wiper doesn't work, and the muffler is full of holes. "Don't worry about it," my Doc says. He insists that I'm in terrific shape despite high blood pressure, old-age diabetes, and growing deafness in both ears. He sounds like a used car salesman to me, trying to get rid of a car that's ready for the junk yard, but I lap up his words all the same, and speed away after the checkup singing at the top of my voice and trailing a cloud of black smoke from the exhaust.

At four o'clock in the morning, after a night of tossing and turning, I'm not so cocky. I go and squint at my face in the bathroom mirror and don't like what I see. Even Peter Lorre playing a child murderer in that 1931 German movie was more wholesome to behold.
Of course the people I know who are apt to be delighted by this are my age or older. Simic understands that none of this will have much interest or even meaning for people who haven't arrived at this age of discovery.
"You'll see when you grow old," someone was always telling us when we were young. In the days before cash machines, when we had to run to our grandmothers for emergency funds, they made us sit and listen to a lecture first. They told us how the world had changed for the worst, how when they were young, boys called their fathers Sir, and girls from good homes had the modesty to blush when spoken to by boys. I would sit at the edge of my chair, nodding in agreement, waiting for grandma to click open her purse and hand over the money.

Even then, I vaguely understood that grumbling about the young was one of the few satisfactions people have left in old age. I didn't mind hearing about the calamities that befell members of our family who failed to listen to the sensible advice I was getting -- and I would get all that I could put up with, until she started sighing and telling me how I'll come to understand everything she was saying now when I reached her age. I couldn't wait to get out of there. Poor grandma, what a drag she was, though I have to admit today that she was right. With age, I do see things differently than I once did.
"I've grown progressively more exasperated about our species and foresee a day when I will no longer be able to bring myself to read newspapers and watch television out of concern for my mental health. Already I have to ration myself. I give Tom Friedman sixty seconds; George Will thirty." But Simic sets himself apart from his father, a confirmed pessimist who came to delight in reading gloomy philosophers who "confirmed his long-held suspicion: the world was going to hell." No, Charles sees himself as only "a part-time pessimist" -- "I wake up most mornings full of hope."

Not, apparently the morning several days before his 50th birthday when he woke up and "grasped the enormity" of that span.
When I was already old enough to pull the tail of our cat in Belgrade, German tanks were rolling into Paris. It wasn't the gray hairs on my head that got me, but the deluge of memories. I remembered sitting in the first grade classroom in the fall of 1945 staring at the pictures of Marx, Stalin, and Marshal Tito that hung over the blackboard. I recalled the long forgotten brands of Balkan cigarettes; Russian, French, and American pop tunes from the war years, and the 1930s movies, of which few people alive today have any notion, that were still being shown in my childhood. So many memories came back to me at once; all of a sudden my life seemed to be that of a complete stranger. It took months to get used to it -- if one can ever get used to knowing that the world and people one once knew have vanished without a trace.
Simic, as you may have gathered, is Serb-born, but he has written a great deal about the degree of discomfort he feels about that identity. He also knows that "other people are not much interested in an individual's lifetime experience and what has been learned from it."
And who can blame them? Even for the old, experience only serves to torment the mind on sleepless nights.
Which leads him to this luscious set piece:
Sooner or later, everyone with a long memory comes up against his or her own Grand Inquisitor. (A black robe and hood, incidentally, is no longer mandatory.) Tonight, mine wears sunglasses and is painting her nails red as she asks her questions:

You once said that Hitler and Stalin were your travel agents. Does that mean that you have to thank them both for what you have become?

I've been racking my brains about that this very night, Miss.

And what about God?

I thank God there is no God to see what we've done to the world.

What about the devil?

I saw him yesterday on TV kissing babies and grinning ear to ear.

You are not making any sense, Mister,
she says to me. How is it possible to believe in the Devil and not in God and then go around crossing yourself from time to time?

I agree with you Miss,
I tell her. Making the sign of the cross must be an inherited habit with me, since I come from a long line of village priests.

Once she stops pestering me, I steal a peek at the clock and can't believe my eyes. They say that time goes faster after you pass sixty. No question about it, it's true. Where are the long, lazy summers of my youth when I sat moping from morning till night unable to think of anything interesting to do? I recollect walking up to a mirror and repeating with greater and greater conviction, "Life is boring." On such days, the old clock barely budged, just to spite me.

You fool, I'm thinking today, that was pure bliss. The mystery of happiness was right there in that cheap clock your mother bought at Woolworth. Time graciously came to a stop in it; eternity threw open its doors and you hesitated or grew wary on its threshold and breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut in your face and the hand of the clock moved on.
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Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (500)
    • ►  July (35)
    • ▼  June (150)
      • People For The American Way Makes The Case For Def...
      • The Supreme Court sends a message to would-be job ...
      • Sunday Classics: In "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner s...
      • Digital Dementia-- Is It For Real?
      • FEC Quarter Ends Today; Should You Care?
      • Does Steve Israel Understand How To Make GOP Racis...
      • TV Watch: I'm going to try again, but I still won'...
      • Court And Spark
      • Right To Vote/Right To Marry: The Red States
      • Bipartisanship... The Good Kind
      • Sunday Classics preview: A little more of "The Fly...
      • Now that we've heard from everyone else about marr...
      • Arizona’s Freshmen Reps: What’s Going On Here?
      • Wendy Davis For Governor Of Texas?
      • A Note From DCCC Chairman Steve Israel: "Top Race ...
      • Can Boneheaded Florida Republican Tom Rooney Keep ...
      • Could Morris Bender have diagnosed what's wrong wi...
      • Comprehensive Immigration Bill Passed The Senate.....
      • Hanabusa at a Crossroads-- Will It Lead Back to Co...
      • Minutemen-- Liars, Rapists, Murderers, Nazis... An...
      • Your Supreme Court at work and play -- as same-sex...
      • Republican SuperPACs Aren't Bringing In The Cash T...
      • Barbara Buono's Lesbian Daughter Is In A Very Diff...
      • Democratic Senators Who Voted To Confirm Fascists ...
      • Ed Markey Won The Senate Seat-- Now Let's Make Sur...
      • OMG, Anthony Weiner is now the NYC mayoral front r...
      • Another Manifestation Of The GOP Civil War: Utah's...
      • Chamber Of Commerce Moves To Bolster Their Boy Rub...
      • Is It Political Suicide For Paul Ryan To Still Be ...
      • Is It Worth It For The Democrats To Try Winning Th...
      • So you think it's a piece of cake being a far-righ...
      • One Final Kaddish For The Farm Bill... And John Bo...
      • Guess What Blanche Lincoln Has Been Up To To Make ...
      • Morsi's New Governor Of Luxor Resigns Amid Growing...
      • Dan Lipinski Joins The Blue Dogs As They Gasp Thei...
      • How Do You Figure Out Who To Vote For? How Do You ...
      • Behind the scenes with the Gang of Eight -- with a...
      • Tomorrow Is A Big Day For Miss McConnell
      • Sunday Classics: "In the lilt of Irish laughter, y...
      • I Got A Call From A New Dem Friday
      • TV Watch: James Gandolfini (1961-2013)
      • Dolce, Gabbana and... Rick's Auto Body
      • Paul LePage, What A Goober!
      • It's Almost As Though The Georgia GOP Has Figured ...
      • Things Are Bleak In Boehnerland This Week
      • Sunday Classics preview: You know who this famous ...
      • To reduce litter, you get rid of the trash recepta...
      • In 10 Days The Republicans Will Force Student Loan...
      • Progressives Break With The Clinton-Bush-Obama Tra...
      • DCCC-- No Shame Whatsoever In Exploiting Women
      • Threats Of Primaries By GOP Racists Make It Harder...
      • "Why America Still Needs Affirmative Action" (John...
      • SNAP! Agricultural Subsidies For Wealthy Republica...
      • CONTEST TIME: Nick Ruiz Is Into The Cult
      • Rick Weiland Guest Post On His Take It Back Campai...
      • A Perspective Of Gezi Park From An Old Turkish Hippie
      • The new Men's Wearhouse slogan: "You're going to l...
      • So Even a Pathetic Pipsqueak Like Dana Rohrbacher ...
      • Hanabusa Cozies Up to Defense Contractors
      • When Did The GOP Become The Party of Unrelenting M...
      • The World Is Less Peaceful In 2013
      • When we make "tradeoffs" for "national security," ...
      • Begich Admits What His Voting Record Proves: At He...
      • When Will The Republican Party End It's Sick Jihad...
      • Big Business Has A Friend-- Congress
      • Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz Maneuvering To Get Cha...
      • A spokesman clarifies Pope Francis's announced con...
      • Will We Have To Go Back To Drinking Wine Instead o...
      • We Need A Nobel Peace Prize Winner In The White Ho...
      • New Jersey Has A Senate Front-Runner Nearly As Sic...
      • Oh no, Pam Spaulding is closing down "Pam's House ...
      • Can Florida Democrats Blow The 2014 Gubernatorial ...
      • Reactionary New Dems Help GOP Pass A Fatally Flawe...
      • Sunday Classics: Father's Day special -- Wagner's ...
      • Does The Pope Refuse To Live In The Papal Apartmen...
      • TV Watch: Maybe "Graceland" only seems "formulaic"...
      • Rightists Have Always Been Obsessed With Homosexua...
      • The House Finally Voted To End The War In Afghanistan
      • Iran, Syria, Obama-Bush and... Alan Grayson
      • Will Glenn Greenwald Run For Congress Against Pete...
      • Sunday Classics preview: Father's Day special -- m...
      • Who was who in the Iranian presidential election? ...
      • Steve Israel And The Gatsby Curve-- If The Music I...
      • Lindsey Graham Wants War-- War Against American Ci...
      • Heather Mizeur: Not Interested In Business As Usua...
      • Is "system" really the word for our two-party, er,...
      • DeMint Is Ready To Go To War-- Against Conservativ...
      • Solar Energy In L.A.-- And Japan
      • Former Republican Congressman Rick Renzi Is Finall...
      • Yes, There Are Still NRA Shills Among Congressiona...
      • Republican Anti-Immigration Filibuster Is Defeated...
      • Is he a hero or not a hero? No, not the NSA guy! I...
      • Does The DCCC Actually Care About Immigration Policy?
      • Corrupt New Jersey Machine Dems Gravitate To Chris...
      • Conservative Men Further Ramp Up Their War Against...
      • Isn't it time we all got our priorities on NSA sur...
      • The Banksters Know Just How To Fix Spain's Economy...
      • Republican Hatred Of Science (And Reality) Lends I...
      • O Hillary
      • Lunch Anyone? How DC Works... At Least On The Righ...
    • ►  May (153)
    • ►  April (148)
    • ►  March (14)
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Ashish Chaturvedi
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