“There is such a sweet pain in parting, that I could hang forever in thine arms, and look away my life into thine eyes.” – Thomas Otway (1652-1685)
1962: Ah Romance! since there wasn’t any happening in my personal life that I acknowledged comfortably – to myself, let alone the object of my affections – I made up a romantic life on paper; expressions in pencil of longings left unexpressed in word or action.
Sublimation much? Friends and peers seemed to be experiencing the mating rituals with much more enthusiasm than I was: initial attraction, asking for a date (being asked for a date), going to the hop and dancing the night away.
There was the phenomenon of ‘going steady’ – wearing that special someone’s class ring as an emblem of ones commitment. There was the prospect of graduation with the promise of freedoms possible once schooling was a fait accompli.
There were other rituals of passage I was more comfortable contemplating and giving life to on paper than manifesting in real time, like proposing and getting married.
However as an artist-in-the-making what particularly excited me was the contemplation of going on a honeymoon, particularly to the South Sea islands, to enjoy the delights of sea, sand, and love on the beach.
With an imagination for the impossible I developed some fantastically unreal ideas about the future and my probable and/or possible role in it, as differentiated from my desired role.
Ah romance! apparently I was so wrapped up in my drawing that I totally forgot about being in a senior play that i have no memory of participating in; the only evidence being the news clipping below…
“You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.” – Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959)
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