Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Peace Essays

See Life for First Time

Random acts of craziness can offer us perspectives that we do not normally see. Just changing the order of something might light up an idea so that it is seen differently. In our search for peace in the 21st century, we need this kind of sane craziness. In Zurich, during the First World War, a group of artists, Dadaists, assembled each night in a café and turned the world upside down. Their philosophy was: “In a world gone made, the only sane thing to be is crazy!” Out of this creative inversion of reality, they dreamed up some interesting approaches to art which have stayed with us to this day. The Dadaists also stood for peace in our time.

Have you ever turned your world upside down just to see the patterns that it makes? If we never make a blatantly stupid act, how will learn to be wise?

Random acts of 'craziness' offer perspective on world around us

     Long necks, orange patterns like stone in a random wall, legs that go all the way to the ground but begin in the trees, a special guarded place away from the jungle.

I am looking at the cover of the Southwestern Bell telephone directory in Waco: the zoo, and trying to see without the numbing use of only nouns.

It has been a hectic week where "the world is too much with me" and the wonderful act of seeing for the first time is difficult. It is a battle that must be won.

We all fight it. We stop seeing our children, our spouses, our fellow workers as newly created individuals. We see them as we have grown to see them — and that sight may have been outgrown.

I see my 28-year-old daughter as the little girl who never was. I remember from my childhood with her. That's right, not "her childhood with me" but "my childhood with her." In other words, I see her as I wished to see her, as "my little girl." It has been years since that was true, and yet seeing her as she is now, it is more true.

Have you ever noticed that your wife or husband is no longer the historical character in your mind's eye? Most of us don't. If we are lucky and work at it, the past and present merge. We see the ones we love with dual sight.

Have you consciously determined to drive home by a different route just to see the process of driving home anew? Most of us do not take the time to try the road not taken.

Educational hugging

Have you ever turned your world upside down just to see the patterns that it makes, rather than the nouns that we ascribe to it? Sometimes that can get you into trouble.

I remember hugging a female friend as she swept into the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce. It was an impulsive act of friendship. We joked about it. She said in jest, "Well, you must hug the next male who walks in the door or it can be seen as sexual harassment."

The next one in the door was the director of the chamber. I hugged him. You know instantly when someone does not wish to be hugged.

He said, "Why did you do that?"

I told him about the hugging scene with my female friend. He sighed, "Next time shake her hand."

By making a mistake, I learned that he had a fresh sense of humor but does not wish to be hugged again by me. If we never make a blatantly stupid act, how will we learn to be wise? Now, I can use hugging as a way to move from intellect or anger into disbelief.

Must be sincere

Hugging is a wonderful way to say, "I am really glad to see you. You are important." The trick is to mean what the hug implies. It cannot be faked. The body knows instantly when the action does not fit the mood or the spirit of the hugger.

Therefore, break the cycle of life by humor, by seeing the world differently, by acts of "craziness."

You cannot be different all the time, because then it is a pattern which is the same. Wearing two different socks a few days in a row makes the world notice when you select two the same color. On the "same color" days, you are thought to be different by being the same as everyone else.

Maybe that is the trick to staying creative in our lives. Break the pattern so that you aren't pre­dictable, even to yourself.

In our own time, we have seen craziness that should be parodied. It is not the right or the left who should gloat about their actions since they are equally guilty of “political madness”. Out of this parody may come some sense, some vision!  Bubba Jay the Third is a master of this media. He makes me think that there is even sense in what he does. He lies, of course”

Surreal realism aplenty

Sometimes, what we dream up can never be as dizzying as what exists in front of our eyes — right, Bill?

Up the dusty stairs to the third floor of a downtown Waco warehouse building, my friend Bubba Jay III was working furiously on his remake of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Based on the Bill Clinton saga, Bubba titled his screenplay, La Ms.

Bubba was writing with a red marker across one wall of an enormous room, filled with seemingly random notes, quotes and scribbles.

"Quite a project," I greeted. "How can I help?"

"Examine and comment," he said.

He handed me a harried synopsis comparing main characters from Hugo's original and Bubba's spin-off:

In Les Miserables we have Jean Valjean, a strong man who, for having broken a window and lifted a loaf of bread to feed his starving family, serves 20 years in the galleys, then spends another 20 years on the run. Who is he running from but Javert, a pompous, self-righteous, self-appointed judge and jury.

In La Ms., we have William Jefferson Clinton (played by someone from "Saturday Night Live" or himself), strong, brilliant, and stupid, and such a fierce political street survivor that he cannot take responsibility for his personal shortcomings. For his offense he serves years of public political pummeling and pursuit by the pompous, self-righteous, self-appointed judge and jury: Kenneth Starr (played by Charlton Heston as Moses in camouflage and face paint.)

In Les Miserables we have Fantine, a mother who has to sell her body to support her child Cosette (the only innocent in Hugo's novel — sounds like another daughter we know.)

In La Ms., we have Hillary Rodham Clinton (played by Meryl Streep), a mother who sells herself to the red-light district of politics to save her marriage.

As I walked through Bubba’s labyrinth of notes and sketches a few ideas jumped vividly into my mind which I flung to the wall, seeing if any would stick.   

"Have Monica and Clinton on the Titanic sinking in and out of the sea, but call it the USS Constitution. We can borrow scenes not only from Les Miserables, but The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Fugitive, and Don Juan in Hell."

"What can we do with Clinton's middle name, Jefferson, and an imaginary slave intern in the White House?"

"Should we call an outer-space UFO alien woman to testify?"

"Maybe we could re-use New York Tribune editorials by Horace Greeley from the 1868 Andrew Johnson impeachment. Note: Monica is a piker beside Jennie Perry, who blackmailed Johnson with charges that he fathered an illegitimate son."

"Could we get Hulk Hogan to play Justice Rehnquist?"

"Where can we squeeze in the feminist line from the '70s: 'Grow your own dope'?". Plant a man?"

Fatigued, I asked, "What's wrong? You have enough stuff to fill several movies."

Bubba shook his head sadly, "No matter what I dream up, the real story is more outrageous and strange. I am a creative individual, but no matter how bizarre I imagine the plot, it pales beside the real current and future dramas."

Bubba's right. The line between fiction and reality has been blurred forever. In a world gone mad only children are sane.