Friday, August 28, 2009

Our Town

On the 14th & 28th of every month, I publish a Fortnightly Literary Blog of Connection and Coincidence. So today, being the 28th, let me share with you an abbreviated version of the longer entry that you can find at kitticarriker.blogspot.com.

"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -- every, every minute?"

You've probably already noticed that Emily Webb's question from the classic American drama, Our Town (1938) appears as a perpetual header for this life-is-just-so-daily blog, chosen because it so accurately captures the sense of dailyness that I want to convey in the every-other-day-or-so entries that appear here on the Quotidian Kit.

"to find a value above all price
for the smallest events in our daily life"

Thornton Wilder
writing of Our Town

My friends and I fell in love with Our Town when it was produced by our highschool drama club in 1973, and my twin brother Bruce played the part of George Gibbs. One of our favorite scenes occurs at the end of Act I, when Rebecca (George's little sister, played by my friend Joni), reads out the mind-boggling address that she saw on an envelope:

Jane Crofut
The Crofut Farm
Grover's Corners
Sutton County
New Hampshire
United States of America
Continent of North America
Western Hemisphere
The Earth
The Solar System
The Universe
The Mind of God


Suddenly in awe of our own cosmic identity, we spent a lot of time recopying this long address, inserting our own names and addresses, and passing our versions around to each other in geometry class. (Sorry, Mr. Anderson!) Not that any mysteries, either universal or local, were revealed; but it sort of felt that way.

Additional Our Town Posts:

Our Town Too

What's the Big Idea

Quinton Duval

Pretty Enough For All Normal Purposes

The Mind of God

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