Once Upon A Time: Holmes For The Holidays

It’s New Years Day here in Gutenberg Land.

Time for serious reflection.

Self improvement resolutions.

Change.

Yeah…

Right…

If this year is anything like last year:

You run till you drop, Road Runner fashion,

and then Bugs Bunny drops the anvil on you.

After which you crawl out from under,

try to make it a point to help others in trouble,

sing a lot,

and voila,

Serendipity.

Which this year came not as the ghost of Christmas past,

but as Sherlock Holmes.

Take your shoes off, grab some popcorn,

and I’ll tell you about it.

This year, for some odd reason, I talked to three hair dressers,

mine,

(one after another)

who were underpaid, overworked, burned out,

not because of my hair,

seriously,

although it is very long,

and we ended up discussing why they were so unhappy.

And what would change that.

And voila.

Three new and completely different jobs.

Three happy campers.

And three fascinating people’s stories for me to learn from.

Not that I set out to change the statistics in the jobless department for the worse.

And then the better.

It’s just that my husband and I have been through a LOT in our lives,

and we don’t like whiners.

If it’s working- thank God and enjoy.

If it’s not working- fix it.

Although this time I was surprised.

Normally it is my choir members that change jobs and move to Juneau.

Or Hamburg.

Or, in one case, Argentina.

(No, not to get away from me)

Or stop drinking, finally,

Or, in the case of one long-term  jobless gentleman,

become  a male nurse and finally marry the mother of his children.

Or become a pastor, like  an unhappy hotel manager tenor of mine.

The point being, as I see it:

You were given a life, now live it.

To the ultimate in joy that hurts no one else.

Just do it.

And blogging is my own step toward getting up the courage to go back to novel writing.

Which I was doing when an anvil was dropped on me.

So…

that confessed,

this was the year that I was finally rewarded by Serendipity.

Which, in my belief system is another word for God,

but whatever you believe,

the result is the same:

My chaotic life style apparently tickled  Someone up there’s whimsy.

And the result was:

Sherlock Holmes.

First the Tom Baker version of The Hound of the Baskervilles

which had been sitting on our shelf for a while,

waiting for a free moment,

like Christmas day afternoon,

to view it.

Then:  Elementary.

Which I record and then play when I get some time off.

Two in two days.

And thirdly,

there was the marvelous serendipity

of a friend mentioning the great Ian McKellen film “Mr Holmes.”

We bought and stored it for the holiday, and…

Three for three.

it was great.

And finally,

last night,

one of our best Christmas presents to date…

tickets for Dr. Hiob Praetorius,

a Curt Goetz play you have to order months in advance,

or in our case, know someone in the theater,

since it belongs to the holiday routine over here,

along with “Die Fledermaus,”

and is usually sold out two hours after it goes on sale.

And this time,

New Years’ eve matinee,

we had tickets.

Tickets!

I knew,

from previous occasions,

a little bit about the writing of  Curt Goetz-

Boulevard Comedies from the 1920’s in Berlin.

The kind of thing you might see if you lived in the musical “Cabaret.”

Or,

since they are so serious,

in their absurdity,

picture Gilbert and Sullivan-

with orchestra and actors,

not singers.

Serious studies of the professions of teaching (die Feuerzangbowle,

in which a new PhD goes back to his high school

to stir up the stiff learning process in the sacred halls.)

Or “Hokus Pokus-”

the study of a lawyer arrested, and well and properly tried for murder-

with all due process and decorum-

and without evidence or a corpse.

(Who eventually walks in the door)

And last night,

to my amazement,

and, I must say,

to my great joy,

the ultimate in absurdity and whimsy-

the study of a gynacologist,

whose life consists of using only legal medical proceedures,

and doing only the absolutely right thing in each situation,

while pretending to be a quack medicine man,

and shoemaker,

so people will actually get over their fear of all that decorum,

and come to his showroom/office.

And after rescuing someone from hanging,

saving a woman from suicide,

and being taken to court by his colleagues,

his death,

by driving into a tree while laughing too hard-

at the a absurdity of the human race-

is, in true medical diagnostic, as well as, deductive style,

discussed by….

Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Which leads me to where we came in.

That in a world like the one we have been living in in the last year,

with all the problems,

and inhumanities,

and fear,

I am so THRILLED that there are still people around

who understand the importance of humor, and, of course,  of the absurd.

And of being able to recapture the joy,

and the innocence,

of childhood.

And,

finally,

that Someone up there is always around to hand it to me and mine on a plate.

Usually filled with a cream pie.

Or, in the words of the brightest:

And the best…

Once upon a time…

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