Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Peace Essays

“Where does peace begin? It begins where you live. It begins in the exact spot you are standing now and in that same exact time. We can play virtual games now on the internet but still that may be where you live and in what time zone. Peace begins by noticing as much as our small brains can hold about all that is around us, all that makes living a joy and an adventure. For twenty years, the place was Waco, Texas but it could have been anywhere. Now it is Houston, Texas. Actually I live in Superman’s hometown of  ‘Smallville.’ We all live there.”

There’s plenty to do in Waco (without big-city prices)

     If I hear anyone say again, “There is nothing to do in Waco.  For entertainment, we have to go to…”  I will scream.  Take a recent Friday, and a perfect evening in Waco.

     It began with dinner. Bienvendios!  Welcome to Lupita’s Tanqueria, Mexican Food” read the menu.  You know the food will be wonderful when half the dinners are speaking Spanish and the other half can’t talk because of the smiles on their faces that are being filled.

     I had platos combinados, fajitas-beef and chicken with just-right cooked onions and peppers, with a side of lettuce, tomato, and avocado snuggling beside refried beans.  My wife had quesadillas.

Both meals were beautifully served on large plates.  We joined the silence and enjoyed each bit smiling to each other our satisfaction.  The service was superb.

    When the bill came, it was $9.74

     I was a two-minute drive from there to the Mabee Theater at Baylor University to see the play.  “On the Verge” by Eric Overmeyer, directed by our friend Deborah Mogford.

     As we entered, we knew that this would not be an ordinary experience.

     The set was a raised circle cut into movable parts in the center of the audience.  It was gray on a gray floor with three explorer’s backpacks sitting quietly to invite us to imagine where we might journey.

     It did not take long for the three Victorian-dress ladies to begin our journey to Terra Incognita.  We explored and struggle with Chris Huth as Mary, Barbara Bouman as Fanny, Haley Fuller as Alex, and Scott Baker as the Native (in many forms and disguises, also in many times).  It was a journey through time and space, but easy to convene brilliantly staged and acted.  The first act was all in the last 19^th century dress.

     At intermission, we strolled through the Baylor Art Department’s Student and Faculty Exhibition.  The student work was the best and brightest that we had seen in our 13 years in Waco, and the faculty exhibition mirrored why the students were so motivated to create magic in metal, charcoal, paint, ceramic, commercial design, fabric and prints.  We walked in wonder through the mind-images of young and old.

     “On the Verge” was just as spectacular in the second act, taking us through time, trying to discover what an “I Like Ike” button meant, until we arrived at 1955 rock-n-roll, bowling and whirlpool baths.  This time transformed the women.

       At last Mary went beyond the verge into our time standing alone at the apex of chronos kinetics (time travel) arms raised, shouting into the future and not caring what it held except adventure.

     It ended as it began a mystery.  But what we had for three hours had been pure theatre.  It allowed the imagination to soar and fly to strange lands of the mind and spirit.

    “Mogford had been brilliant in her staging.  The student actors became the characters so the tag “student” vanished in the magic of the moment.  It was bliss, and we hated to see it stop.

      Elsewhere in town, ABC television had been at Hillcrest Professional Development School all day, filming The Art Center of Waco’s work with children and art for a show to be aired nationally in June.  I thought as I left the Mabee Theater that they should have seen this.  They were going back to New York where what my wife and I had experience would have cost more than $100 each for the meal, the theater, and the exhibition.  It had cost us a total of $29.74 ($9.74 for our meal, $2 tip, $16 for theater tickets, and the rest in gas) for the two of us for four hours of joy.

     Eat your heart out, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Paris, and London.

      We live in Waco, were we can get a wonderful evning under $30.  Of course, I enjoy those cities, too, but I’ll never see our prices there.