Futility
good grief Charlie Brown
your curve ball hits chunk of pine
each and every time-Clarence Holm
PrairieChat
Thoughts from the Heartland
good grief Charlie Brown
your curve ball hits chunk of pine
each and every time-Clarence Holm
PrairieChat 
Love it, Clarence. Love Charlie Brown, also.
Fun haiku! 😀
Thanks Daniel
Light touch with Charlie Brown. He never got to kick the football either. Fun & memorable, once again, You are into strolling through the memories. Well, done. jk 🙂
Believe it or not, In 1971 as a college freshman, I was the first amateur actor to play the role of Snoopy in “Your a Good Man Charlie Brown” Our college got the play just after it was released from Broadway.
That is so cool. I love theatre. Did it in HS. Our college was more into film making and I loved Psychology & Philosophy, as well as Literature. I headed the College Paper instead. Have stage fright. But I got to hang out in the summer at the Westport Country Playhouse in CT. Lots of famous actors came through and I got to enjoy watching them rehearse. That was fun. I live with a Theatre Major from Bennington College, so I have been surrounded by it. Do you still enjoy the idea of acting. Also, how did you do as Snoopy? My fav character is Woodstock, but I don’t think I remember W being in the Broadway show. I, also, love Broadway and was fortunate enough to live near NYC growing up, so when I was old enough I use to go to NYC all the time to take in a show. Now they are so expensive and I live too far away to get to NYC. I do miss the shows and the museums.
Playing Snoopy was the highlight of my college acting. Although I was in a number of plays and sang in groups I had horrible stage fright, but was addicted to the rush I got from being on stage.
Most people who knew me from college still call me Snoop.
Had to quit acting and singing as a result of agreement I made with the Head of the Music Department. I had returned to college after a 5 year absence to complete my English/Music degree. In order to graduate I had to pass a senior level choral conducting class. To pass, I promised I would never direct or participate in a choir (including church or plays) Basically I sold my soul to the devil for an A in Choral Conducting. For futher ironic justice, God banished me to a 25 year marketing carreer in the Insurance Industry.
Now I spend my day writing Haikus…
I am sorry to hear you ended up in marketing, You did survive to do Haiku. That is something. It was great you were able to do theatre. I use to do music in a folk group. Had to be stoned to perform. Did church choir and chorus in HS. What did you do to get booted out of Music? Selling your Soul? That is an enormous area of bargaining. I missed the marketing was in the Insurance Industry. That is probably worse. No offense intended. Cool knick-name ‘Snoop.’ Sopwith Camel. Loved the song too. Wasn’t Snoopy involved with that song re: The Red Baron?
Don’t you just hate stage fright. The exhilaration was great but my last performance seemed out of control. at least for the crowd. From then on I played and wrote songs privately, for personal pleasure. Lyrics were my way of writing poetry for awhile. But poetry is inside of me. Writing is my addiction. Can’t stop doing it.
Look at it from the positive angle, You Write Great Haiku and give people who are lucky to read your work a lot of pleasure and other emotional reactions. You have found a great calling. Keep going with Haiku. And it ever, try experimenting with other forms of poetry. You would be surprised how it will make you feel. Or Not. 🙂
You know I’ve found a real simularity between writing Haikus and making a marketing slick. Both come down to distilling an idea or moment into something that grabs the audience.
It is not a matter of providing all the answers as much as it is forming an image that people can picture. If you form the right “aha” moment -people open their mind to concepts.
When I started in insurance, I absolutely knew nothing about it, but I went door to door selling individual small agents on the concept of a group having strength. I did it by learning names of the agents, their families, and their cities. By doing that, my brother and I built the largest agency group in America and became number one in sales for Met, Travelers and the Hartford.
In 2013 I was Travelers Midwest agent of the Year. I served on the National agency advisory board for Hartford’s AARP Insurance Product.
You know after 25 year in the industry I never did learn much about insurance, but I learned alot about people. Learn about people and treat them right and anyone can be a success.
As Far as why I quit singing, when I was a teenager, my grandmother died and I was asked to sing “How Great Thou Art” and the “Lord’s Prayer” for the funeral. Afterward my Aunt pulled me aside and told me that I had the most “mournful voice she had ever heard!” I told her that my greatest pleasure would be to sing at her funeral. I thought we understood each other well.
My choir director put it to me this way, “The world does not need another choir director with your talent, God has another plan for you.”
But then you did learn about life through your work. Being understanding of peoples need that you met, is a way of being creative. And you’re creating the business you did with your brother was a success in your life. It sounds like you were doing something creative when melting down your ideas into their perfect form in order to communicate the message you wanted to get across. That is all very satisfying.
As to singing music, “How Great Thou Art” is one of my favorite hymns. I use to play it on the piano all the time. Now even though I was in a church choir, I don’t recall there being a hymn for the “Lord’s Prayer.” You have a mournful voice. I am not quite sure what she means. When you sing does your voice create a sadness with the song. Do you know the song “Oh, Promise Me?” That really knocks the tears out of me. Saw Julie Andrews singing it in the film “SOB,” directed by her husband Blake Edwards.
The choir director, did he not want the competition or was he trying to guide you in a different direction for you own sake? Did he see something else in you he felt you should explore?
I think your poems have brought out the poet in you. So maybe he was right. Though you may not be able to make a living writing poetry, if it is part of your soul, then you must follow the spirit guiding you to the words you use to express yourself. And you do that extremely well. jk 🙂
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