Talked About Some Old Times
On both sides of the Atlantic, the word “crazy” is often used in an exaggerated way, to define the smallest, insignificant things. For example:
"The weather outside is CRAZY!"
Or:
“Wow. They overcharged you twenty cents for apples? That’s CRAZY!”
Meanwhile back in 1985, I started working for an animation studio in London. Over the two years, two months and two days I was with them, I learned a huge amount from the owner of the company.
Unfortunately, over that same period of time, he totally fell apart and completely lost his mind.
At first, his erratic behavior was eccentric and colorful. The ideas he came up with often seemed mad, but I liked his out of the ordinary thinking. The jobs we worked on – mostly animated TV commercials – were creative and fun.
For over a year, things thrived under his leadership. The projects flowed and our clients were happy, but behind the scenes, for reasons that remain none of my business, his marriage disintegrated. And as this relationship fell apart, (or maybe because of it), his mind also fragmented, causing a rollercoaster ride of emotions. On some days he would be full of excitement for life, and the next day he would sit in his office for hours, sadly rocking back and forth in his chair.
Then after a while, even the excited, emotionally high days were tainted by sadness.
One day he called me into his office as he periodically did, to share an idea with infectious enthusiasm. “Dan! Dan! I’ve just figured it out. Listen to me; I just figured out… how I’m going to WIN the next Wimbledon men’s title!”
For a man in his forties, he was a very good tennis player, but it was ridiculous to think that he could beat the 1985 teenage champion Boris Becker in a Wimbledon final.
- “Seriously,” he insisted as his face was overtaken by an overwhelmingly earnest expression. “I’ve figured out how to win.”
He leaned in close to share his ‘secret’ with me, and with a wide-eyed excitement and the certain knowledge of revelation, he announced:
- “All you have to do... is... hit the ball back every time!”
There was a moment of silence as I waited to hear the rest of the sentence. “Yes, and...?” I nodded.
- “That’s it!” he declared loudly. “When the ball comes over the net at you, just make sure you hit it back to your opponent every time.” Then leaning in closer again, to emphasize: “EVERY TIME!”
He walked away with an excited burst of laughter and a determination to make this happen. It seemed amazing to him that no tennis player in history had ever come up with the same idea, because all of them – even the greatest champions – had let the ball go past them at some point. He was going to return every ball, and win Wimbledon by the time he turned forty-five. People would be amazed!
The mind is fragile. I saw this in 1985, and it remains true today as the stress of the Coronapocalypse virus applies its pressure to our socially distanced and isolated lives. In the past few months (as can be seen in previous articles) I've spent a lot of hours outside in my home garden, connecting with nature and attending to the various plants that I've been nurturing into becoming salads and soups. In that time, I've enjoyed some very calm, serene moments watching tomatoes, popcorn, peppers, garlic, herbs, radishes, carrot and strawberries sprout and flourish.
Spending so much time outdoors, I've also learned a few things about my neighbors. (They might not want me to repeat their secrets, so the following names have been changed to protect the innocent).
Located directly on either side of my house are The Freemans and the Silvers. They are both elderly couples, and extremely nice neighbors. When we meet, we exchange tips on growing the healthiest vegetables, and we re-deliver each other's mail when it is mistakenly left at the wrong address.
The Johnson family in the house behind our garden (diagonally to the right), are not too loud, but they do like to take most of their phone calls on their outside deck. If you are interested, Aunt Mary had a small scare, but it was easily cleared up with a stiff brush and a cup of seltzer. Steven forgot to eat breakfast last Saturday, and Caroline has reduced her possibilities down to three.
Meanwhile, next to them in the house directly behind ours, the teenage boy is called: "CONNOR!!!" Apparently, the three exclamation points after his name are very important to the pronunciation, because I've never heard his parents say it any other way. As in:
"CONNOR!!! What were you THINKING?!!"
And:
"Hey! CONNOR!!! Stop doing that!!"
A similar volume is applied to the pronunciation of the daughter's name: "AMBER!!!", although for a while I wasn't sure if this was the name of the daughter or the dog, because both seemed to come running when the name was yelled.
Soon after home isolation hit, the family of CONNOR!!! and AMBER!!! bought a trampoline and a very large inflatable swimming pool, which added to the wild noise of teenage play. This also increased the volume of parental response to the dangerous lines that are crossed when teenagers are given water, and something springy to bounce on.
In the near distance, seemingly on all sides of our house, babies are constantly unhappy, and lawns are cut frequently.
These daily disturbances could drive a person CRAZY, were it not for a moment of nature's magic that united a neighborhood.
Something brown was jumping excitedly behind the bushes in the Johnson's back yard.
At first, I thought it was a large dog, but as my brain fought to process the sight, it became clear that this animal was WAY too big for a neighborhood pet. It tried to run into the Freeman’s garden, but was blocked by the wire fence that separates the properties. This frustrated the animal, forcing it to run out into the open area, when my eyes widened and my heart leapt.
It was a deer.
These animals are not uncommon to see in the woods around my home in White Plains, New York, but it’s rare for them to venture into our suburban backyards. With eyes situated on the sides of their head, they have a wide 310 degree angle of vision, and their keen sense of smell picks up predators from far distances. Deer also have great hearing; without moving their heads, they can turn their ears in different directions and pick up very high sound frequencies. These heightened senses usually help them to steer far away from humans.
And yet here was a deer, jumping around the Johnson’s.
It had somehow wandered down the street and through a single open gate, into their fenced yard. It then found itself unable to find the same way out, and decided to wildly run in all directions, to see if that would create an escape.
By the time I gathered my family to watch, the other neighbors had also joined to watch. As the deer got ready to make another impossible run at the fence, we all shouted “No!” This made the panicked creature pause, before picking another hopeless area to bang its head on. Again, the neighbors were united in sympathy, before the deer suddenly noticed the open gate, and wandered cautiously toward it.
“Yes, yes!!” shouted the neighbors, frightening the deer away from its only escape route, and back into its futile attempts to run through a fence.
The Johnsons opened up the other side gate, to double the chances of escape. We continued to watch, as the animal became more frustrated until – more through luck than judgement – it finally found the exit, and ran away.
The neighbors cheered, united by the joy of success, and then we all returned to our home-isolated lives. After this incident, the Freemans and Silvers still potter around their gardens. The Johnsons continue to take phone calls on their deck, and the parents still shout at their teens, but somehow our encounter with the backyard deer has shifted things into a nicer place.
The world’s problems are not solved, but maybe – just maybe – we can take one exclamation point off CONNOR!! and AMBER!!, and make the universe a tiny bit less crazy.
