Brilliant Thoughts by Ashleigh Brilliant Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara with wife Dorothy since 1973. No children. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com
How to Suck Seed
S
uccess depends on many factors, including being able to read and write. And – (as demonstrated in my title) knowing how to spell can also help. On the other hand, in one of my favorite short stories, “The Verger,” Somerset Maugham makes an opposite point, telling how Albert Foreman, a verger (church caretaker) is dismissed from his position after 16 years because his boss, the new Vicar, is shocked to discover that Foreman can neither read nor write. Shortly afterward, Foreman, taking a walk, and needing a smoke, finds that the district he is in seems to have a dearth of tobacconist shops. He decides to open one there – which is so successful that, eventually, he has a whole chain of them, and becomes quite wealthy. In the story’s beautiful conclusion, Foreman’s bank manager happens to learn about his illiteracy and says to him: “Do you mean to say that you’ve built up this important business and amassed a fortune of thirty thousand pounds without being able to read or write? Good God, man, what would you be now if you had been able to?” “I can tell you that, sir,” says Mr. Foreman with a smile, “I’d be verger of St. Peter’s, Neville Square.” But in real life, success is usually defined in terms of the achievement of goals. And in this regard, let me ask you, who was the most successful president? My answer may surprise you. I would choose James Knox Polk, U.S. president from 1845 to 1849. He actually fulfilled all his campaign promises (including a pledge to serve only one term). He did everything he intended, including making Texas part of the Union (to say nothing of acquiring most of what is now the great American Southwest) and achieving a settlement with Britain over the long-standing Oregon boundary dispute, which also brought the U.S. vast new territories. I am not praising these land-grabbing accomplishments, but simply pointing out that Polk was highly successful in fulfilling his goals. Sadly, he wore himself out in the process, and died (of cholera) only three months after leaving office. For most of us, however, success may largely depend upon our years. Survive long enough, and your reward may be that someone will charitably call your struggle to hang on from day to day “successful living.” (There is, 25 August – 1 September 2016
in fact, a local group whose aims are worthy, but whose name has always seemed to me a sort of oxymoron. It’s called “Successful Aging”). But surely at some point in our lives, we have had some nobler, more exciting, or at least more motivating concept of success. Fame and fortune have traditionally topped the list of desirable objectives (though winning the lottery might take care of both) – but I have added another four estimable F’s of my own: Freedom, Family, Friends, and Fun. Of these, I have, by my own reckoning, so far
Fame and fortune have traditionally topped the list of desirable objectives (with time running short) been successful in attaining only one: freedom. In fact, by avoiding making commitments, I have, for much of my life, had too much freedom, and have never known what to do with it. (Of course, the paradoxical truth is that once you are committed to doing something with your freedom, you are no longer free.) Fame, except on a modest scale, has eluded me, though I have given her every opportunity to come my way. The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded only to living authors – so I do at least have that incentive for staying alive. But we all know – don’t we? – that fame is a very unworthy goal, and in any case is almost always fleeting. Fortune, in the sense of great or even moderate wealth, has kept its distance. As for family, I was never very close to the one I was born into, and (perhaps partly as a result) never felt much desire to start one of my own. And friends, who may be the most meaningful of all measures of success, become harder to hold on to as you suffer through that aging process so questionably linked with success – especially when they die without your permission. That leaves us with one final measure of success: how much fun did you have? To help answer that question, let me bring you back to our title. Some people – and they may truly be the most successful of all – can actually get all the fun they need by simply sitting back and sucking seeds! •MJ
ENTERTAINMENT (Continued from page 23)
stories, between the bodega owner and Cuban woman next door, and between the daughter of the owner and the limousine driver. It’s accessible because it’s about working people, ones who are striving to achieve their goals, and who don’t believe in ever giving up. There’s a lot we can connect to because it’s about loss, need, success, and self-discovery, which applies to anyone. It’s very complicated piece, not at all like the classic old musicals. But it has a wonderfully heartwarming resolve.
Have you ever seen it elsewhere? Yes, with the original cast not long after it opened in New York. I remember some of the images. But I made sure not to watch any of the source material that might be on YouTube or any other resources, so that we’d tell the story fresh. Our mission at PCPA is to create, not re-create. But I was aware back then that it would be a game-changer inside of our industry. Meaning? It’s a very important piece in the arc of the musical canon. It’s a musical that brings rap into the main source of the music material, based in hiphop but also Latin and salsa, stuff you hear on the radio all the time today. The music is an album you’d listen to in your car, not just when you are in the mood for a soundtrack. It’s one of the most dynamic and exciting scores we’ve ever done. It’s as epic as Les Mis – but where that’s operatic, this is just a series of hits. There isn’t a single hit song in the bunch, they’d all be in the Top 40. It’s a perfect collection. They all have this energy and drive that’s uniquely modern. And of course, the show has this renewed currency because of the success of Hamilton. It’s the building block on which he created that show. What he has done is have the American musical take another step toward being accessible and exciting to all audiences, beyond even those who like Rent and Spring Awakening. Those shows laid the pathway for him to write this piece, which then led to Hamilton. How do folks who’ve never heard of Washington Heights and may not care about hip-hop relate to it? It’s a voyeuristic peek into their lives, but that’s not just special to that neighborhood. Any piece about a specific culture offers a chance to connect with and see how similar we are. Anybody who has dreams or aspirations or hopes – which should be everybody on the planet – will connect to this story and because of how it’s written, really feel it. It’s very much of this time. You’re watching people you’d see walking down the street every day. As far as the music,
Studies show nothing scares off a nighttime intruder like a woman’s scream
it’s loaded with gorgeous songs. Not just young people love it – audiences who are 60 and over are on their feet at the end because they connect to the material. What goes home with you? The meaning of family. Not just those we were born and raised with, but those that we collect along the way. Also looking at where you are in life mentally, physically, and emotionally and remembering the good where you came from. We can get so caught up in trying to get to the next thing that we forget where we are. We’re never too old to dream and aspire. (PCPA’s In the Heights plays Friday, August 26, to Sunday, September 11, at Solvang Festival Theater, 420 2nd St., in Solvang. Tickets cost $38.50 to $49.50. Call 922-8313 or visit www. pcpa.org.)
Polo under the Harvest Sun
The Gulfstream Pacific Coast Open, the final tournament in high-goal season at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, is down to its final weekend. Sure, the scene is a highly social gathering place for the see-andbe-seen crowd, but there’s also some darn good polo being played on our local fields. The semifinals take place Friday, August 26, when Farmers & Merchants Bank boasting 8-goaler Lucas Criado squares off against Restoration Hardware, boasting tandem 6-goalers Jason Crowder and Santi von Wernich, at 1 pm. Three hours later, it’s Klentner Ranch, led by the Obregons (Geronimo, 4 goals and Facundo with 6) versus FMB Too, which is half comprised of famed 8-goaler Paco de Narvaez and his son, Francisco, who sports a 1-goal rating. On Saturday, August 27, the teams who placed fifth and sixth in the preliminary rounds – SD Farms, led by Cesar “Peco” Polledo and Alan
ENTERTAINMENT Page 314 EARTHQUAKE RETROFITTING 50 + YEARS EXPERIENCE - LOCAL 35+ YEARS
• FLOOR LEVELING • FOUNDATION REPLACEMENTS • FOUNDATIONS REPAIRS • EPOXY INJECTION • RETAINING WALLS • FRENCH DRAINS – WATERPROOFING • SITE DRAINAGE SYSTEMS • UNDERPINNINGS – CAISSONS • STRUCTURAL CORRECTION WORK • CONCRETE DRIVEWAYS
805.698.4318
FREE INSPECTION
William J. Dalziel Lic#B311003 – Bonded & Insured visit our site at:
www.williamjdalziel.com billdalziel@yahoo.com
MONTECITO JOURNAL
27