Day Ten, December 25, 2012
Today, returning from a screening of The Hobbit (an excellent romp, thank you Peter Jackson) I stopped off to visit the graves of my former landlady and patron, Donna Raye Beckett and her mom, whom we called "Becky." The day was overcast and rather chilly, but I was impressed with the number of families and individuals who were taking Christmas afternoon to pay respects to loved ones who had passed on. The whole cemetery was strewn with not only hundreds of poinsettias, but a couple of graves had full sized fully decorated Christmas Trees.
One person sat for a long time beside a grave near where I was visiting. He was quiet, perhaps having a little lunch? He took a long time and when it was time to go, he gently caressed the bronze marker and then bent down and kissed it. This kind of devotion impressed me. After he left, I went to see the grave. It was a simple marker with some little Christmas Trees left behind, all brushed off. Singular. Alone.
I first 'met' Don and David Keeney several years ago when visiting Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. They were twins, evidently, born in 1955. David passed away first not yet three years of age. Don survived for almost exactly a year to the day beyond his twin, not yet four.
The inscriptions on both of the markers are the same: "For of such is the kingdom of Heaven." I just found the quote from Matthew 19 in the King James version of the Bible. The verse quotes Jesus saying that children should not be hindered from coming to him. I don't think that the Bible verse really means that children should be in Heaven, but that's sort of the fatalistic take that I make on the inscriptions.
These twins are buried under a big tree next to folks who lived full lives, or at least long ones. I wonder what it was that made these guys vulnerable back in the fifties? I wonder about their parents and maybe siblings? I wonder about twins and their special bonding and why Don got an extra year to live?
It's Christmas Day. Good movie. Good chatting with Stuart and Marlene. Well treated at the DGA. These are presents that are mostly intangible, but welcome and... just enough.
P.S. The Keeney's showed up on line. The parents, Dwight and Joyce, had three more children. Daniell Lee and another set of twins: Laura Faye and Lavon Rayond Keeney.
DAY Nine, December 23, 2012
From my porch, now and then, nature makes a comment. Clouds in Southern California are a hit and miss proposition, but when they roll in, I remember Colorado sunsets with thunder heads along the Front Range and sometimes a rainbow.
When I moved here in 1986, I looked out across Adams Hill and dubbed the big gray house across the way "The Shoe Factory." That was, partly, an homage to Gar Campbell's video that I'd seen back in the days before most folks could shoot video on a phone.
The neighborhood is mostly unchanged here. Cambridge Drive is quiet with a few new neighbors. I miss the old ones.
Clouds. Nature's Artwork. To me, when they pile up like this are every cliche I've ever heard. Tall ships. Castles in the air. Ever changing ephemera.
Long ago, in a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy, Charlie Brown and Linus are lying on a little hillock looking at the sky. Lucy asks Linus what he sees in the clouds.
"I see 'The Stoning of St. Stephen" as realized by the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn. What do you see, Charlie Brown?"
Charlie Brown pauses for a moment.
"I was going to say a ducky and a horsey, but I changed my mind."
Death and holidays: time for reflection.
Look to the clouds.
Look to our hearts.
