Thursday, December 01, 2005

Hawk Hawkes

It's around five in the AM. Don't ask. I plowed across an interesting quote a few minutes ago. Since it is the only quote by this woman I won't list the URL. I guess this is an aberation from th form.

Jacquetta Hawkes

* The only inequalities that matter begin in the mind. It is not income levels but differences in mental equipment that keep people apart, breed feelings of inferiority.

I won't even attempt to explore the facets of a thought like this. It's not a ground-shaker. I suspect there is more truth there than some want to admit and less truth there that others might dream. Nuances of words and thoughts. Maybe it is because of our "mental equipment."

That makes me think of George Barker. George died a couple of years back. His folks tried to outlive him; they didn't. Around these parts folks say that George wasn't all there. Of course, as much of George as he had was always with him; he never went very far.

I don't think George ever went to any school. His folks did their best. He was trainable to a degree. He could take care of his basic personal cleaning needs. He could open a can and warm it on the stove. I hear that Granted he only ate one can of whatever at a time rather than opening a couple of cans and having a meal.

In good weather and bad George would sit in his wooden rocking chair on the front porch and rock. That's the way he watched the world go by. He saw as much of the world as he could from that porch. I don't think he ever learned to read. They didn't have a television. George's world was that porch.

I'd stop by on hot days when I was walking down the road and say a piece with him. He'd smile and maybe say a word or two. All of the time he'd be looking off that porch and rocking madly as if the world might stop unless he kept going. I do remember the time he looked out and said, "You know." I waited for him to say something else. He didn't he just rocked on.

George died at the age of sixty-three. That was two years after his mother died. His sister Mattie came in from Greensboro and buried him when she got the word. She took what she wanted from the house and the rest is falling down behind the "For Sale" sign.

"Life is short and strange. You know."


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