At a large party a few years ago my Manitowoc friend looked at a woman across the room and said, "You see that attractive woman in blue, she married to our dentist, she had to get married."
I turned to my friend and said, "My God in Heaven, she is 70 years old and you mention something she did 50 some odd years ago! That is the sum of her life!" That is a cartoon of a personality. A few lines that one can draw that instantly make you know that person, big chin, small eyes, large head of hair. A cartoon is probably true in nature but is missing the three dimensions, the color, the light, the shadow, the frame and the texture of the surface of a painting. A cartoon is for the simple and small minded person.
All my life I have loved the stories of people and so history is naturally something I enjoy. I have been glued to the television for a half century at each state funeral, all Congressional hearings of note and the moon landing. It is the events of history and insights of human beings that teach me about myself. These tell me how heroes act and how cowards recoil and shrink.
For the last few days, I have watched in curiosity about the funeral of Ted Kennedy. Maybe I met him, I know that winter of '59 in Wisconsin I met his two brothers. All the Catholics in my village were afraid of John becoming president, something about being an American and a Catholic at the same time.
The cartoon of Ted was destroyed for all that listen the last few days. Those that had no interest in listening or believe in the cartoon are like my friend from Manitowoc.
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