Fail Better

“Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better,” Samuel Beckett, “Worstward Ho”

While purchasing “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates” at the IUN Bookstore I passed “Taste of Soul,” taking place in the Savannah Center lobby. I had already eaten lunch with Anne, Jon, and Mark Bayer (showing off a photo of his newborn baby) and, besides, the barbeque meat seemed a little too spicy for me, but I stopped to admire the display Steve McShane put together about the history of Gary’s Midtown neighborhood that included materials in a glass case about Vivian Carter and Vee-Jay Records.  In fact, since I’ll be talking about her in early March at the Reiner Senior Center in Hobart, he offered to let me take that part of the exhibit there next week to help promote the talk.

Here’s how author Wes Moore begins his introduction: “This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore, with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore.  One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid.  The other will spend every day until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead.”  Claiming that the words of author Samuel Beckett – “Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better” -  capture the book’s central message, Tavis Smiley wrote that the book is about two people going through their “own personal journey and searching for help.  One of them received it; the other didn’t.”  With typical Irish gallows humor Samuel Beckett wrote about those who struggle in an inherently hostile environment that doomed most of us to failure.  Sadly the successful Wes Moore is the exception, not the norm.  The fate of the million or so African Americans presently incarcerated in America is more typical than the author’s Horatio Alger success story.  Let’s hope the book in some small way redresses the imbalance.

I heard from my old softball teammate Ivan Jasper for the first time in years.  He lives in Fort Lauderdale and plans to come north to see IU play sometime in March.  He wrote: “All is good in the southern part of the country. Lots of changes in my life: got married to a wonderful lady from Trinidad a couple of years ago, got a total hip replacement in July of this year, had to give up softball at 55 could not heal quickly enough from the injuries so I switched to golf and this past weekend won the club championship for my flight (old guys) beat out about 25 other golfers.”  He drops in every ten years or so unannounced and likes to see if we recognize him.

Speaking of IU, the Hoosiers won a thriller last evening against Michigan State in East Lansing, 72-68, first time they’ve won there since 1991.  Each time they fell behind in the final minutes, Victor Oladipo made spectacular plays to save the day.  Both Phil (an IU grad) and Alissa (an MSU grad) called afterwards.  Like a good father Phil admitted that he wouldn’t have been all that unhappy had the Spartans won.  In fact, I told Alissa I always root for MSU except when they face IU.

I’ve been working on my Sunday talk for the twenty-fifth anniversary banquet of the Portage Historical Society entitled, “Portage becomes a Town.”  Supported by Midwest Steel officials, land developers, and business leaders, incorporation took place in 1959 following a Fifties population boom.  I’ll make use of oral and written testimonies including this reminiscence by former neighbor John Laue about riding the school bus to old Crisman school from his home in Edgewater, located in the northwest corner of Portage near Lake Michigan two blocks from our Maple Place house.  He wrote: “The long ride was made more pleasant by our friendly driver Harry Johnson, who to relieve the boredom of the long ride would teach us every song he knew.  I’m sure we were quite a sight traveling down Route 20 singing, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” at the top of our lungs.  Harry was a great guy, but he ran a tight ship.  One afternoon he pulled the bus over to the side of the road after someone in the back had lit up a cigarette.  We sat there for what seemed like forever until the culprit finally confessed.  That’s the last time Harry had to deal with a smoking problem. The first stop on Route 20 was at Ted’s Trailer Camp, whose billboard boasted, ‘Live Like a Millionaire.’  Harry picked up a group of kids whose faces always seemed to be changing.  On the other side of the highway Harry made another stop to pick up Lenny, Mary, and Morris Douglas.  Back then they were the only black family in Portage.  The Douglas’ lived on a farm in an area that now has been transformed into an ugly industrial park.  Lenny was in my class and pretty popular with classmates.  During his senior year he won awards for citizenship and academics.”

NWI Times reporter Bowdeya Tweh interviewed me for a story about the state of the area’s steel industry, mainly to get a historical perspective concerning the diverse in-migrations of ethnic groups who found work in the mills.  In his email he buttered me up by writing: “By the way, I met your son when I volunteered to spend time at E.C. Central and he's a great guy and a really good teacher. Glad the school system has him.”

With Ryan Shelton’s invaluable help I finished laying out Shavings volume 42, which came in at 280 pages.

Yesterday I bowled two good practice games, and owner Jim Fowler mentioned that Jeff Manes interviewed him (at my suggestion) and that the results might be in Manes’ SALT column on Sunday.  Tonight the Engineers lost the first game by four pins but won the next two and series, despite David Fowble rolling a 279.  In the final game we were all over average; I had a 178 and Duke a 267, leaving only an eight-pin in the fifth frame.

An article by Charles Brock entitled “Rake’s Progress” in Harper’s magazine discussed the TV series “Archer,” which I had never seen before.  “The Simpsons” paved the way for adult cartoons like “Family Guy.”  “South Park” raised the stakes in terms of grossness, but there are evidently millions of young people into a type of dark comedy that the author called anti-comedy.  As an example of how it differs from traditional comedy he first cites the joke, “What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?  A half-eaten worm.”  Anti-comedy would answer the joke with “The Holocaust.”  I watched an Archer episode and found it interesting in a jaded way, with jokes about being gay and plenty of murder and mayhem.  The main character, Sterling Malory Archer, is a master spy interested mainly is sex and alcohol, who works for an intelligence agency headed by his domineering mother.