I was born to Ray William and Doris Roberta at 2:52 pm on Wednesday, September 16, 1942. I’m certain that on the 1st day of my life it didn’t occur to either of them that a lifelong dream of their first born son would have to wait for a new century, and 29,777 days.
It was 1:30 am as we started to make our way to the airport for a 6:00 am West Coast departure. Following a brief layover in Salt Lake City we arrived at JFK a little after 4:00 pm. After thirty minutes in the cab “queue”, followed by an hour and ten minute ride, Kathy and I arrived on West 36th Street in Midtown Manhattan. It was four days before Easter Sunday, and I had awakened to my dream in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. New Your City was seathing in the confluence of social anarchy and political confusion. It was Wednesday.
Pre-tell Hamlet, was it to be or not to be.
Would my dream fared best about this mortal coil
Distant from the bourne of needless fardels.
To bear the certain ills rather than fly to others unknown.
Had I risked the whips and scorns of time unselfishly
For less than the charm of curiosity’s blithesome yearning.
When others, not by quitus make with a bare bodkin
But the patient merit that unworthy
Takes to grunt and sweat under a dreary life
Only to grow wearily obdurate?
Nay - Nay - Nay
So, Hamlet, I chose to dream -
Of a place dazzling
Liberated
Fearlessly fair
Sagaciously transient
Wickedly winsome,
Nary quotidian, Hamlet -
Of a place rare
Mean
Nervy
Unselfishly proud
Faithful to the deserving
Wonderfully kind
Justly juuuust - Hamlet
Nary to say fæger, buten to say tréowe.
Perchance then - “To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come. . .”
Perchance?
Spare such fear of the oppressor’s wrong!
The pangs of disprized love.
Take not pause, Hamlet -
Seek not to respect those ordinary
Dare thy will to be puzzled, My friend -
Wait not for Brigadoon.
Tis Xanadu! Oh! Xanadu, Hamlet -
I returned home on day 27,784. It was Wednesday. It was worth the wait.