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“Come gentle Spring! Etheral Mildness! Come!” – The Seasons, Spring – James Thompson, 1700-1748
The IRS Building
We had only been in Washington, D. C. one day and in going from our hotel to the Smithsonian for that first time we had to pass the IRS building. The building had been built to the edge of the sidewalk but there was an arched pass-through for pedestrians.
Now, I want you all to know that I am normally an easy-going, peace-loving, law-abiding citizen – normally, that is.
“Maybe I should spit on it,” I suggested to my wife, “Just for old time’s sake and as a silent sign of protest.” Fortunately, she had a better suggestion.
Later, as I was waiting near the Faurcault Pendulum in the Smithsonian, for my people to regroup after each had gone their own way, a gentleman sat down beside me and we eventually began exchanging views about waiting for people. Soon I was telling him of my experience at the IRS. He began to laugh.
“You’d be surprised,” he told me, “How many people do just that as they pass the building. I know. I used to work there.”
Who Are ‘They’?
From time to time THEY have entered my life and I don’t like it. In fact, I will resist it vociferously when THEY try to dictate how I must live, what I must wear, which wine I have at dinner, and all the other things THEY tell me I must do.
When THEY call ol’ Hageman a square headed Dutch man THEY are right for once. He’s also stubborn. This is one place where THEY know what THEY are talking about.
Several of my children have been known to go into a tizzy when father is putting colors that do not match, dots with striped or whatever combination I think they will find repulsive. The reason for their anguish is because THEY say that only certain combinations go together. A copout because THEY don’t know what I’ve got in my closet. So of course, my first consideration is very basic – “What do I have in my closet?”
The city manager once decreed that I should wear a necktie on the job. Now neckties are not all that bad but I didn’t think that in my job it was appropriate. Therefore, I intentionally got some pretty repulsive ones. He finally just gave up quietly.
Actually, some of them, in my opinion, were not all that bad and that brings up a very vital point – I liked them! I am the first person that has to be pleased with what I am wearing. In the first place, there are three criteria that influence the clothes I buy: do I like it, does it cover my nakedness, and can I afford it? After that has been taken care of then I might, just might, listen to what THEY have to say.
You see, THEY have been known to change their mind. What is “in” this year is taboo next year.
I have seen people paw and paw over a selection, trying to get the “right” combinations when actually I think the problem was they were using that as a cover-up for their own indecisiveness.
When I was studying architecture I kept bumping my head into these rules and the answer nearly always came up one way: “You just don’t do it that way!”
“Why not?”
“Because it just isn’t done!”
“Is that the only answer?”
“Well, it just isn’t done that way.”
“Why not?” (and here comes the clincher. This usually comes in one of two answers, sort of multiple choice.)
(1) “Because THEY say you should get better ‘balance’.
(2) “Because it says so in the BOOK!”
“What do THEY know about what I want? Look at it from that angle!”
But you are wasting your time. Almost invariably the teacher is only mirroring his or her own hangups. If a person can show me a definite improvement by changing a thing that is fine with me. I’ll go all the way. But if it is because THEY think it should be another way, forget it!
A correspondent of mine once gave me a bad time for trying to change a procedure. He used the simile that cars have always had hoods in front and therefore all cars should have hoods in front because they looked like cars. However, he didn’t explain the sudden popularity of vans. Sure now they are developing hoods on vans but is that because they want them to “look” like cars? Nonsense, they are getting that motor outside so they’ll have more space inside.
In 1948 when the old Kaiser and Fraser cars hit the market their design was their downfall because THEY said the design was too “far out.” Ten years later all cars looked like the earlier Kaisers. Why?
You want to know something? I don’t think THEY are all that smart.
The Grouch Growls
There is an interesting word game out that Rosella and I play quite a bit – Boggle. You have twenty-five cubes with letters on each side which you are to shake up in a container and let fall into twenty-five squares. The purpose of the game is to find as many words as you can within a three minute period that are composed of four or more letters connected either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
I usually win which she credits to the fact that I am more used to four letter words than she is.
Did you ever stop to think of the implications if God had a recall program for imperfect products?
Jack & Rosella Hageman
Kennewick, Wash. 99336