Chaucer

After years (a couple at least) I finally finished Canterbury Tales this morning. Rewarding.

I think I'd started it more than once over my 53 years. A lot of us had to memorize the first bit of the first prologue in high school so that we would learn to speak and appreciate a little Middle English. Maybe we had to read one of the tales as well. On a solo drive to Baltimore I rented a Middle English audio version and got up through about half of the Knight's Tale. I would suggest a modern translation though, for one's first try, which is what I just finished. I'm sure purists might tell me I didn't really read Chaucer, but oh well.

My favorite tale you ask? The Squire's Tale showed great promise - a steed of brass that can teleport, a mirror that could show the future, a ring that could translate birdsong and identify healing herbs, and a sword that could cut through any armor but whose flat could bind a wound. But just when the tale gets a head of steam, the Franklin cuts him off and starts his own tale; I was so annoyed! For the first time I hopped on the internet for reasons why the Squires Tale goes unfinished. Theories abound, but Chaucer definitely cuts it off on purpose - something about incest being an issue?

The last of Chaucer's tales is the Parson's Tale. A word of warning, intrepid reader - it is the longest of the tales, and it is, in fact, not a tale but a treatise on Sin and Pentance. Again, I went to the internet for an explanation. One theory is that Chaucer was a little worried that some of the earlier tales might be a little two bawdy, and that this would temper feelings towards the work somewhat. OK.

Friends

I joined Facebook last week, and it has gotten me to thinking about friends.

Who is a friend? Someone you like? My sister Gayle sent me a picture of our mom meeting Dorothy Lamour while riding her bike in Sudbrook Park (MD) as a teen. Did I like my mom? Sure. I liked my dad, too. Were we friends? We were friendly.....

I don't think I shared the same interests as my parents. Mom cooked. I cook. But I don't remember talking much about cooking with mom. Dad and I were both accountants - we even worked together from 1986 until he died. But what interested him didn't interest me, and vice versa.

Dad loved old cars. We went to visit Old Car John one weekend to buy a Model A that we intended to restore together - bonding. It was in bad shape, though. John suggested we look at a 65 Mustang that he had restored and was for sale in Sudbrook Park. We ended up buying the Mustang, which was in terrific shape, so no restoration - or bonding, necessary. Offhand, I think our best bonding period was when I started playing music regularly in Baltimore and Dad was between wives. I thought it was pretty cool that he would come to watch me play.

If you're reading this on Facebook, you've probably experienced the Long Lost Friend find. That happened to me yesterday evening and was very exciting. Was she a friend when I knew her in the 70's and 80's? Definitely. We hung out together in a group of friends. We talked easily. I think we understood each other.

I don't think I ever understood my parents in the same sense. If I had been introduced to Giff Blaylock or Shirley Davis at a party, I think we would have looked for commonalities, found none, and moved on.

How about this as a hierarchical model*:

1. Biological love - your kids
2. Romantic love
3. Very close friends
4. Friends
5. People you like
6. People you know
7. People you don't know

What do you think? Also, where do I fit "Friend, because he/she's a friend of my wife's", or Friend, because he is the husband of my wife's friend", or "Friends, because their kid and my kind grew up together"? Of course these people often become your nearest/dearest friends, but sometimes not.


* Actually have no idea if there is such a thing as a "hierarchical model", and too lazy to Google.