The shadow of this red rock
by chuckofish
I have been laboring this week to put our new built-in entertainment center in order–not an easy task.
We have collected a lot of stuff over the nearly 41 years of our marriage–mostly books, DVDs and CDs. (Not to mention all the VHS tapes still in the basement along with my parents’ LPs.)
I make no apologies for this. We spend a lot of time at home, especially in this room.
So we feathered our nest and made it more comfortable. I realize CDs (and DVDs too) are obsolete, but c’est la vie. I like owning movies–who knows when they will start canceling all my favorites. And, yes we will probably upgrade our television at some point so our children will stop laughing at us.
Anyway, I am making progress and my alphabetizing skills are sharpening.
Since going to Bent’s Old Fort a few weeks ago where we met the nice old couple who had owned the Best Western in Las Animas where “all the movie stars stayed” during the filming of the 1978 miniseries Centennial, I thought it would be interesting to watch it again.
I first watched it when it premiered on television, originally shown on the NBC network in twelve separate episodes, with the first and last each running three hours and the ten in between at two hours each (with commercials). I was in graduate school at William and Mary at the time. As I recall, it starts out strong and loses steam–at least I did watching it. I don’t think I watched the whole thing. The early part would have interested me then as it does now, especially since our “Cousin Richard” plays one of the leads. Yes, we used to refer to Richard Chamberlain as “Cousin Richard” and a few people in college were convinced that he was, indeed, my cousin. There is a certain family resemblance.
We have watched four episodes (about 9 hours worth) and we are enjoying it, although Richard Chamberlain’s character has died. It is still interesting to see the landscape and note the places we were a few weeks ago and to see the actors who make an appearance.
(Is that a very young Mark Harmon?!)
Anyway, it is something to watch–TV is such a wasteland.
“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
–T.S. Eliot, from The Waste Land.
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Finally, I have to say how touched I was by William Shatner’s emotional response to going into space. It seemed very sincere and not what I’d expect from that old smoothie. “I hope I never recover from this,” he said. He tries to explain what nobody else seems to have experienced, including Jeff Bezos.
So here’s to giving credit where credit is due. Hats off and happy (belated) birthday to William Shatner! May you live long and prosper.
dual personalities 