TITLE: Old Enough to Know
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 06, 2013  8:37 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
A trip to my alma mater for a reunion this weekend brings to mind
these words from Roger Ebert:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking under
 autumn leaves, carrying a briefcase containing the works of
 Shakespeare and Yeats and a portable chess set.  I will pass an
 old tree under which once on a summer night I lay on the grass
 with a fragrant young woman and we quoted e.e. cummings back
 and forth.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was more likely carrying Keats than Yeats and quoting Voltaire
than cummings, but the feeling's the same.  There is something
about the age as we enter adulthood that becomes permanent in
us, more so than any other time.  I'm old enough to know that
these memories can't hurt a thing.

I sent one daughter off to college a couple of years ago and will
send another next year.  In this experience, I feel more like
the wistful father who penned
<A HREF="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/08/mr-dear-son.html">
   My Dear Son</A>.
Indeed, "every age has its gifts for the man who is willing to
work for them and use them temperately".

<CENTER>~~~~</CENTER>

<EM>Attributions</EM>.  The Ebert passage comes from
<A HREF="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/liberal-arts-2012">
   his review</A>
of the film
<A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872818/">
   Liberal Arts</A>.
(Ebert calls it "an almost unreasonable pleasure"; I agree.)
John Mellencamp wrote the line "old enough to know...".
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