See you at the free show
You’ll probably recognize the nebby gossip, the maniac husband, the great lover (in his own mind!), the devious (but not desperate) housewives, and a bunch of loud bar buddies. They’re all hanging out at Penn State Fayette this weekend performing in Shakepeare’s live stage play, ” The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
What would stop you? It’s free. The seats are comfy. If you have a vision or hearing problem (like myself), there are good seats right up in the front for you. The goodly folks there will assist you in any way they can.
What to wear? Haven’t a thing, right? For this student production, casual is OK.
Where will you park? If you need special parking near the door, please tell the helpful guys who direct traffic, and they will give you instructions. Parking is free too.
Will you fall asleep during the play? Not this time. There’s quite a bit of noise and surprises, and laughter from the audience will prevent dozing. This one’s so funny you don’t even have to understand Shakespeare.
Please phone and tell the gentlefolk at Eberly Campus that you will be there. The play is April 10, 11 and 12. The phone number is 724-430-4125. See you there, come sit up front with me.
Cathy Zimmerman
Perryopolis
We’re different post-Sept. 11
How can you even begin to call yourself free when the price of everything has you working like a slave to make ends meet?
We freedom-starving machines are not like we were before 9/11. We thought that nothing on this Earth would change us, make us learn to appreciate the simple pleasures of this world.
Then, suddenly, the violence and hate crimes of Sept. 11, 2001 changed the way we live. Our faithless souls are now merely vanishing echoes of the confidence once so integral to our personal agenda, now forever gone, forever past.
Everything in the American psyche has become so disconnected, so weird, so unpleasantly different and corrupted, unreliable.
So much in our daily struggle has gone from bad to worse – fast. Isn’t that exactly how most of us feel: stressed, weaker, tired, disenchanted and sad?
Yes, every important aspect of the American experience is being forever altered – more confusing, more complex, and more difficult to accomplish anything successfully. Understanding one another has become impossible.
We are not thinking rationally or clearly anymore. Instead of slowing down and taking stock of our circumstances, we are over-reacting emotionally.
We are all sharing so many divergent negative feelings and emotions that we cannot honestly communicate our shared anxiety with one another.
Minor differences are accentuated. Instead of finding common sufferings, we become less sympathetic, less brave, less confident in our own and our children’s futures here in America because of feeling a loss of moral high ground in the world.
Still, thousands of painful images and gut-wrenching words beam forth from the world’s communications media, continuing to depress us. Our peace of mind is being shattered.
Our precious war veterans sleep in homeless despair. It’s just another example of the erosion of the American faith in one another, which goes on and on and on.
So, you all better try and have some fun no matter what you fail to accomplish in this lifetime,. no matter your personal failures or defeats, because in our maker’s eyes nothing compares to you.
We can still take comfort knowing that we were beamed down to Earth to learn the truth; something we seem to have forgotten as a nation of disposable, outmoded, rejected and disappointing human machines:
We are thought of by the owners of America’s big, money-printing machine to be expendable, expensive and all used up.
We are slyly and slowly being sold out as failed human experiments that have turned themselves in jackasses.
Your humanity is dying, and you don’t even realize that by all your thoughtless and wasteful consuming, that we are each helping one another commit national, family and individual suicide.
So much for the past lessons of the Great Depression and the ways of frugal, simple, and skillful living – they have been wasted on you.
Silently, one-by-one, in the infinite workings of heaven, their humble heads, God’s beloveds will eventually learn.
Regardless of our bitter disillusionments with the present and our disappointment in one another’s weaknesses, we are all God’s points of brilliant, silvery-white, divine light, intelligent and aware spirits trying to be whatever it is God wants us to be – perfect fools.
S. Raymond Pohaski
Markleysburg