CONTINUATION OF THE "ROUTE 66" SERIES

Ancestors (south of Strafford on old 66)

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OVERVIEW

Romantic Reminiscence From Stone County (October 24, 2003)

My exchange of letters during 2003 with a former law classmate resumed a relationship that has focused the continuing journey toward personal maturity: then and now. From her letter of 18 September:

I interpret your use of "childish" in referring to our behavior in the 60's as similar to . . . Paul writing to the Corinthians: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly . . ."

"Kiss Me Kate"

Her same letter (of September 18, 2003) referred to the phrase above as . . . "quite apt, particularly if you refer back to Shakespeare and 'The Taming of the Shrew.' Considering the status of women it is hard for me not to sympathize with Kate, and what shrewishness I have felt and displayed in my life sprang from the same fount. Petruchio says: 'For I am he born to tame you, Kate; and bring you from a wild Kate . . .'"

She continued, in effect, with affirmation of my recall that McCord himself was not man enough to tame her; but that . . . "I have been my own Petruchio (with a little help from my friends and analysts), and I choose to interpret the play much as I interpret Plato's Republic, as a guide to one's proper rule of one's own soul. A shrew is not a happy camper."

She closed this letter with response to my plan for completing the "Route 66" series: "Finally, I will be very interested in an account of your mind shaking process, the path up the mountain, and then back down again.

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Hood Mountain (California)

Urban Renewal Fantasy
(Dreamed up around 1980 while consulting on plan for downtown Springfield)

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The exchange of letters forced upon me a self-critique and greatly sharpened the writing of webside additions during 2003, in response to Kate's critical queries. She has been quite a taskmaster, with my thanks: encouraging a discipline needed for lending contextual realism to the writings. This cultured lady has thereby brought me down to earth for the planned (symbolic) account of a continuing journey.

Back Door to Orchardcrest Baptist
(West Springfield near old 66)

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