Renaissance Joe

US Lithograph Co 1903

S

He sits in front of me, or anybody else he talks to - earnest, attentive, gravely listening. He crosses one long leg across his knee and shifts his weight, getting settled in. A conversation with Joe is always gratifying, simply because one feels they have his entire focus, that he is completely present to the other person -whoever that might be. The mail carrier, the minister who stops by to see his elderly parents -they are all equally important to Joe, at least on the surface. Although glib in his own right under the correct circumstances, he is always careful to answer any question lobbed his way, giving it the consideration of somebody about to win a million dollars on a game show. This endearing quality also makes him seem a bit surreal, and often leads to questions about Joe which really have no easy answer.

He is one of three brothers whom I've known for many years. He is simple and appears to be straightforward, yet a closer check reveals him to be a most complicated human being. At 52, he's my contemporary and yet I always feel a lot younger than he is. Joe can rebuild an engine, play the stock market with quiet intuition, making money when others are losing it. Knead his own perfect bread or hail a cab with equal aplomb. He can play any stringed instrument with ease, and yet the playing isn't passionate. It's perfect, a solid performance, for he and his brothers have few musical equals. But there is a glossiness about the music which leaves the listener confused, maybe a little disappointed. This might be because whoever interacts with Joe encounters only a reflection of themselves. His brown eyes are mirrors of those he meets- no smoke to accompany the mirrors, for Joe is an honest man and what you see is basically what's there. But a little less,too. After losing three sons -two who were infants, dying just a few days old and expiring in his arms at the hospital. The third a teenage son in a senseless traffic accident. A wife who walked away after years of marriage-the burden of association too great, maybe.

And now , in many ways, he's a guy for whom everything is easy. Once you shut down the main artery to your heart and set the auto pilot, your worries are over. He laughs often, is unendingly gentle and is always busy. Lately, it's been figuring out how to launch a helium filled, LED blinking UFO over Springdale without being arrested. He would briefly note the ensuing chaos, then move on to something else . His brain is always alive, planning the next practical joke or building the next motorcycle in his mind.

Life is good, as long as one skims along the surface, chuckles gently and [ thankfully] doesn't have time to read things like internet blogs.