[joe-frank-list] 'The future'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Debi recounts Dan & Suzanne's wedding in Milford, Pennsylvania
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford,_Pennsylvania), in the forest,
near a waterfall, on the ranch of Dan's cousin and his wife.  They
don't let anyone in the house so the ceremony's outside.  Debi and her
friends (she mentions Steven Rapoport (an accordionist), Kelly
Kidneigh, Paul Walfish (sp?)) put on a show at the Waterwheel ('The
Waterwheel Cafe | Milford PA Cafe Dinner Bakery Bar Music'
https://www.waterwheelcafe.com/) the night before.  (Debi goes to a
Halloween party with Dan & Suzanne in 'Silent sea'; she mentions their
upcoming wedding in 'Emptiness'; she mentions talking to her friend
Suzanne in 'The box'.)
	2:20: Larry tells Joe Zachary doesn't want to go school
anymore; he says nobody's talking to him.
	3:10: Debi says the day of the wedding is pouring rain.
Suzanne wants her wedding in the forest so they stick to the plan, get
wet.  They have a rabbi and a huppah.  (Suzanne is Jewish; Dan isn't.)
	10:20: Larry tells Joe Zachary's behavior troubles him,
recounts examples, fears for him.
	12:40: Debi tells Joe about Dan & Suzanne's vows.  Debi and
Steven sing 'Her love is stronger than I am' (I can't find this.  It
sounds like a power pop ballad.)  She describes the motorized
porta-potties.
	16:00: We hear Larry yelling at Zachary.  He wants a razor to
shave his head.  They fight.
	17:30: Debi tells Joe, apropos of the wedding, that a wet knot
is tighter.  She tells the story of the man who helped a butterfly out
of its cocoon.
	21:00: Larry yells at Zachary and they fight some more over
using the phone.
	22:40: Debi tells Joe that Suzanne used to hate the rain,
loves it now.  Guests play in the rain during the reception.
	24:20: Joe tells Larry that he can't stop Zachary from doing
stuff of which he disapproves.  Zachary's going to Las Vegas.
	25:00: Debi tells Joe she can't imagine having a better
wedding.  Joe imagines some outlandish possibilities (on a live
volcano, in a sinking ship, in a tornado...)
	26:20: Jack Kornfield expatiates on the first Noble Truth:
life is suffering.  ('Did you never see in the world a man, or a
woman, eighty, ninety, or a hundred years old, frail, crooked as a
gable roof, bent down, resting on crutches, with tottering steps,
infirm, youth long since fled, with broken teeth, grey and scanty
hair, or bald-headed, wrinkled, with blotched limbs?')  He quotes
Basho's haiku 'Even in Kyoto':
	'Even in Kyoto
	 hearing the cuckoo's cry
	I long for Kyoto.'

He calls our culture one of pain management instead of acceptance.  He
quotes Adrienne Rich:
	'The problem, unstated till now, is how
       to live in a damaged body
       in a world where pain is meant to be gagged
       uncured       un-grieved-over      The problem is
       to connect, without hysteria, the pain
       of any one's body with the pain of the body's world'

(excerpt 18 from 'Contradictions: Tracking Poems'.)

	30:20: Kornfield expatiates on the second Noble Truth: the
cause of suffering is grasping.
	35:20: Henry Dennis tells Joe about a neighbor couple.  They
drink too much; their toy shop went out of business; Dennis suspects
it was mismanagement.  The man becomes obsessed with Dennis, stalks
him; Dennis suspects he's interested in him sexually.  Dennis
threatens him with a spear gun, which finally drives him off.  (I
think this story is set on Long Island.  There used to be a submarine
base in New Suffolk; it's across the Sound from the large submarine
base in New London, Connecticut.)
	43:10: Debi recounts a dream: in a store a woman asks her why
she pushes her cuticles back, starts to pull off a layer of one of her
fingernails, then gives her a manicure while they're walking around.
They're attracted to each other, kiss, she has an orgasm; her
boyfriend wakes up, gets aroused by this, they have sex.  Joe asks why
she had this dream.  Debi suggests a beautiful woman was dancing too
closely with Malcolm, later suggested a foursome with her husband to
Malcolm.  But she wasn't the woman in the dream.
	47:40: Joe asks Debi about the implication of this couple
propositioning them at a wedding.
	48:10: Larry tells Joe he's going to say 'cunt' every 4 or 5
words so Joe can't record it.  He tells Joe about Joyce Carol Oates's
appearance on educational TV.  She says our heroes are our parents.
Larry thinks this is stupid.
	50:50: Kornfield expatiates on the Third Noble Truth: finding
peace in the moment.
	52:20: Kornfield expatiates on the Fourth Noble Truth: that
Nirvana is available at any moment.
	53:10: Debi and Kelly Kidneigh leave a message on Joe's
answering machine describing after the wedding.  Kelly wants Joe to
call.

	From the broadcast, 'You've been listening to Joe Frank "The
other side".  This program was called "The Future" with Debi Mae West,
Larry Block, Henry Dennis, Kelly Kidneigh, Buddhist teacher Jack
Kornfield, and Joe Frank - production: Ray Guarna, production
assistance: Esme Gregson'

	The first time I heard this show I thought, 'What great
friends - I wish I had such great friends.' - the second time I
thought, 'What great friends - I wish I had been such a good friend.'

russell bell