Random Acts of Sanity
721. The Yorkshire Spirit
The last time I saw Clip John alive he was immaculately dressed in full dinner suit, white frilled shirt, black bow tie and highly polished brogues, strenuously digging his front garden. I knew better than be surprised at anything he did, or to question him directly, so just said, "You're looking very smart today, John".
"Oh this?" he said. "Waste of brass. Wife made me buy it for my retirement do. Worn it once. Been hanging in press this five years. Well I'm just back from the hospital. Seems I've only got a couple of months left. So I might as well get some use out of it while I can. Shoes no damn good for spadework though".
2. Abdullah's Birds
Abdullah made his own job. He washes cars in the TV station car park while the owners are in work, for ten riyalls a time. He's sometimes busy in the mornings and around the four o'clock change of shift. His best days follow the sandstorms when everything is coated with fine desert dust. The searing heat and blazing sun are to be suffered, all day, every day.
He obtained a length of link chain and fenced off two adjacent covered spaces. He placed a plastic basin in the middle. Every morning, he fills the basin with fresh water and scatters around it a few handfuls from a bag of maize. His wild bird family has now increased to about fifteen pigeons and two white doves. They are used to the cars, but any walker except Abdullah will send them in a flurry to the hot tin roof.
Sometimes all the covered spaces are taken and late arrivals drive around until reluctantly forced to leave the car in the open sun. No-one has ever asked Abdullah to remove the chain. No-one will.
3. The Motorbike
The well-to-do gentleman was first to break the rhythmic silence of the railway compartment. "What brings you this far South, son?"
"Och" said the boy, "I'm to start up in the drapers' trade in London. Family business".
His companion read perfectly the meaning of that 'Och'. "You don't want to be doing that, son. The diamond mines in South Africa, that's where I'm heading. Would you like to know more?" When the train pulled into Euston, they alighted together, still deep in conversation.
Though he didn't make his fortune, four years later he had saved enough money to buy a motorbike which he rode all the way home from South Africa to Scotland, taking with him a few diamonds and a lifetime of stories and memories. There are many ways to cut cloth.
Random Acts of Sanity
Apart from truth, for I've made up none of them, is there a common thread running through these cameos? I think there is, though it's hard to pin down. I'm reaching for the idea that we are at our most sane when doing what we have to do, regardless of what some may think of us, regardless of norms. I leave you with one more. David Jenkins was my great grandfather. Though I never knew him, my mother remembered him well and often spoke of this very night.
Thank you for reading.
4. David Jenkins, Merchant
She died on Castle Hill, and Davie knew the moment. He saw the mist come to her eye, as Tammie slipped away. Yet she walked on, between the shafts of the old fruit and vegetable lorry. The cobbled wynd guided her home as Davie stroked her mane, older by one grey mare.
Standing in her own stall, her breath was slow. She heard the rustle of the straw and kindly words as Davie's sad hands rubbed her down, one last time. Then he left her side. He knew she had to die alone, and he was not the kind of man to try her dignity.
He came back to the stable after an hour, sat down on her still-warm flank and rummaged in his pocket for his pipe and tobacco pouch. He lit up and smoked the evening into darkness, remembering all the horses he'd known. "Aye, aye, Tammie" were all the words he spoke that night.
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Comments
Inspiring vignettes. Thanks.
Maven - thank you for your appreciation. I think we all carry with us stories and memories of the finest that we have seen. Long may that continue.
Ralph - sometimes I wonder why I am not living a simpler life. Is it better to play the system? I suspect not. Thanks for reading!
Lovely!
Marvelous hub! Thank you. Para.
Q
Liam - thank you. This one was important to me :)
And Quilligrapher - thank you too !
By the way - are you a fan of Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch who also used Q as his pen name? He was a great literary critic and essayist, in his day.
No, not a fan of Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch but I will look him up. Perhaps I will become one.
Q.
I think, among other things, he was the editor of the first Oxford Book of English Verse, so not an easy act to follow!
A real feel for each 'Random Act of Sanity'.
Have to look up the word vignettes by Ralph D. Sounds like it may mean something like a kind of essay or a different type of poetic short story.
eonsaway - thanks for that :) And vignette is a good old-fashioned photography word!
This was touching. Thank you for the warm thoughts I am leaving with as I crawl into my cozy bed tonight.
Peace
Jen
Nice information..Lovely hub..
Thanks Jen - it is these little things that make us fully human.
Gejinder - most welcome :)
The last one about David Jenkins and his horse really tugged at my heart. This hub is a great read Paraglider. Thanks.
Each one touches something deep within. I wondered why you used the word 'sanity' when I started reading - but you're right - this is what's sane. We hide what's simple and sane under layers of insane rubbish so often. This cuts to the quick and lays bare the essentials - a great read, thanks!
Emievil - it's one of these family stories that's been handed down. Tammie was Davie's last horse. His sons carried on the business, but changed from horse-drawn to petrol van.
Shalini - You've got it exactly. We do indeed lose sight of what's important. "Getting and spending we lay waste our lives" as the man said.
They were all moving. It hits the core for sure. Thanks Paraglider.
"....little that we see in Nature that is ours/ we have given our hearts away a sordid boon....' - one of my WW favourites!
Moments of lucidity, perhaps. I have been blessed with a scant few, like diamonds glittering amid the sands of an endless beach. Somehow a voice says, "Pay attention. This is important." Thanks for this.
Jess
Jewels - thanks for the visit :) Such stories are to be found on every street corner, I think.
Shalini - when he was good, he was very very good...!
Jess - so life's an endless beach? Some would be jealous :) (It's OK, I know that's not what you meant!)
Applause! These are the stories of life.
RGraf - they are indeed, thank you :)
Such lovely depth in so very short stories. Great work, Paraglider.
Thanks Dolores. I've just visited your profile page and found an impressive variety there. I'll be reading :)
There's a poetry in your short tales. Sometimes these little canapes (first photography, now cookery!)are more satisfying than a main course.
Thanks Amanda - it seemed a good idea to group these ones together as a mixed hors d'ouvres (you started it!) Not sure yet what to follow it up with :)
Nothing to beat real life stories, eh? Fiction does not always rule! :)
I agree, and 'eccentric' people who are not herd animals are often the best examples.
I guess I understand what you mean by "eccentric." Not following the herd instinct, but following one's own instinct! :)
Lovely little stories, make you think. Thanks.
Excellent hub. Love the pigeon story.
Quicksand - I think the herd instinct has been hijacked by consumerism and the propaganda machine to the extent that choice is illusory unless you break free.
Knell63 - thinking is good - thanks!
Explore9360 - thanks for visiting. Pigeons rule :)
Thoughtful and inspiring. These hors d'ouvres need nothing following; they are a fine meal in themselves as well as a call, to me at least, to look for meaning and fulfillment in simpler places.
I have always been inspired by the stories the elders share, it seems that no matter what we've accomplished in life, it's the little things that get filed into memories.
Sally - I think that's essential. The world is changing and we are all going back (or forward?) to simpler times. We have to, as the alternative is not to be contemplated. Thank you for the visit, always welcome :)
Jiberish - also thanks for visiting. The 'accomplishments' turn to dust faster than the little things. Probably!
As I'm often wont to say, things are usually much simpler than they appear.
Henceforth I shall call you Maestro.
Thanks Richard - no name-change necessary! It's sometimes hard to see local humanity behind national insanity.
No wonder you have so many fans, you are quite a unique character. I like # 2 Abdullah's bird. A short story at its best. I came across your Hub out of the blue and I am tickled I did.
Thanks LL - and welcome to HubPages. I see you've just joined our little community :)
really good!
Cheap favors - thank you!
Paraglider,wonderful random thoughts of random acts!! Very clever, again my friend I enjoyed your story telling very much.
Heyju - thank you for that :)
I enjoyed your writing and want to read more! Kartika
Thanks Kartika :)
Paraglider, how do you ride a motorbike all the way from South Africa to Scotland?
You use boats when you have to. In those days the main problems were impassable areas; now, the problems would be visa/passport control. He did it. It would be harder now,
I really enjoyed reading this, Paraglider. You have pinpoint control in your writing. I too try to be as succinct as possible, as I was always taught to not "waste words" much in the same way a chef does not add unnecessary ingredients to a masterful dish.
There is a plethora of meaning within these stories and one of the ones that I find is "doing for the sake of doing." That works for me in either case. Thank you for sharing this!
Dohn - thank you for that. I'll be looking out for your work now that I've found it. I think we're here for similar reasons!
Lovely and inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
Mahfuza (lovely name) - thank you for your appreciation :)
what a beautiful inspiring hub to read to make the day a little warmer, (its cold even in texas now....)
It's still not cold in Qatar - in fact it never is! Thanks for the read :)
ur lucky, no cold weather there..miss my country--it is comfortable there all year round--in the Philippines, visit philippines, only 8 hours away from there??
Here, the weather is good from about now until late May, but then it just gets HOT! Then in September as the searing heat recedes, the humidity ramps up. Nowhere's perfect! Not been to the Philippines yet, but hoping to go before I leave here.
Lovely! I was awed and inspired. Especially by the last one about your grandfather.It brought a tear to my eye. Truly amazing work, I am fairly new to hubs and very new to actually putting some of my writing out there. I have a long way to go in honing my skill but you have truly inspired me!
Sybil Marie - thanks, and welcome. There are lots of good writers on HubPages, whether commercially driven or just here for the fun of it. Just do what you want to do and enjoy it :)
when are you leaving there??tell me if you go to philippines
I will. I already have an open invitation to stay with friends somewhere in the south (can't remember where). I'm expecting to be in the Gulf for maybe three more years, but nothing's certain!
Pithy yet profound. I enjoyed this page very much. Thank you for making us think and reflect.
Hi James - these human stories are happening all around us, if we just take time out to notice. Thanks for the visit :)
I so prefer the word maize for corn so much more, especially since it came from Taino language. Unfortunately the word maize is usually only used in academic texts here, but it just sounds so much nicer than corn. Abdullah and his birds are very sweet :).
Hi SweetiePie - thanks for visiting. I think we tend to call it sweetcorn when it's in the shops or menus as a vegetable, but call it maize when we're talking about it as a crop. Or maybe that's just in my corner of Scotland!
Thanks for the clarification PG because I did not know. I just have always loved the word maize, but as I said that word is primarily used it in academic texts about Native American tribes. I am part Kansa Indian, so that is another reason I am so interested in the term :).
Most welcome, SweetiePie. I like mine roasted over a barbecue then served with lashings of melted butter and black pepper!
Thanks for sharing this hub. very good read.
You are an artist of words and your work is inspirational.
We are joining your fan club and hope that you will join ours.
Thank you,
Stacey and Bobby
Stacey & Bobby - thank you, and welcome :)
maven101 says:
2 months ago
Wonderful praise for the finest nature of man; being true to ones self...Beautifully written, capturing the essence of the gentle man and his coping with life...Larry