Ken Burns’ PBS special further cements Ernest Hemingway as a phenom, a monstrosity. He was like all of us in the final analysis, a summation of our contradictions and strengths. He was not an angel and he was a mere mortal. While watching this tour de force, I thought of damaged geniuses. Miles Davis comes to mind. Especially how he was gripped with paranoia at the end of his days. Miles originated from a rich and dysfunctional family with a powerful father who couldn’t stop the fights with Miles’ mother Hemingway was prophetic when he wrote, “Ask not for whom the Bell Tolls.”
According to Hemingway’s critics, he began to believe his own press his own BS. The celebrity persona brought the groupies and they heaped lavish praise upon him. He was a demigod of fiction and creative writing. That is the problem with celebrity – separating the man from the myth.
It is a mistake to get too far away from being an ordinary man or woman. Extraordinary is OK, but it is not advisable to stay away from the ordinary man too long. The ordinary man is demythologized every day after he makes ROLL CALL. One of the problems with CELEBRITY is that you can never be anonymous. You can never be private because too many people know your face and your work. In London and Vancouver, these metropolises are secular cities but you can find your party even behind dark glasses.
Life events can attack you like a ruthless band of bandits. Lovers and friends can leave, and loneliness and despair can’t attack you like a band of ruthless jump out boys. Ask Van Gogh, he literally took a razor blade and sliced off his left ear and nearly bled to death before a medical intervention. Was it because of an argument with fellow giant-artist, friend and lover Paul Gauguin?
Hemingway and the 27 club, Hendrix, Cross ROADS Delta Johnson, Morrison, Joplin and others could not stop their avatars from leading them to descend into a brilliant madness. Charlie Parker’s “BIRD LIVES” anesthetized himself into the next world by overdosing at age 33. One fellow writer and analyst said that no insecure overachiever can compensate while standing in quicksand. Really, forget your critics and don’t be overly concerned by what the citizens of Nutbush think of you. Your family and three friends – YES – but not the gallery.
St. Augustine said, and I paraphrase, be careful of what you love because you become what you love. And now we come to the crux of the matter. Duchess Meghan Markle made Oprah and all of us freeze and blink when she said in the interview, “I did not want to live.” Did she know that Nikki Giovanni transversed the mental universe when she said, “treat yourself well and you can treat others well?”
The Crown (monarchy) is important, the Prince and Queen are important, the British people are important, however, why be flipped by their conception of you. A grown woman submitting to a scheme of having to ask an employee if it is permissible to go to the Doctor is unacceptable in 2020 or 2021. A royal mother is denied security for her children and innuendo floods the ether about how “brown” your unborn baby would be. Because the world has color anxiety, the world starts soul searching. Our shining prince, Malcolm, knew color anxiety as “ whites disease.”
Now Doctors are addicting you to powerful anti-anxiety drugs.
I am sympathetic but worrying can’t change destiny. “Mind candy” can’t change destiny. Hemingway couldn’t comprehend that fat meat was greasy, and that alcoholism was progressive and fatal.
BB King told Queen Elizabeth how to fight the hounds and alligators with the Blues. “If you want to keep on flying, don’t look down at the ground.” No one can make you feel inferior unless you give them your permission. Even if Hemingway’s daddy descended into madness and committed suicide, he could break the grip of celebrity and become an ordinary man and live.
I am musing about a complex matter. I admit that I am somewhat unsure that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
I do know that in another episode of the BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL, Ms. Hollywood , Patty Duke, was DESCENDING into MADNESS, being dominated by anti-psychiatry medications and psychiatrists. Luckily and fatefully, Patty Duke found the right psychiatrist after 22 attempts. The 23rd psychiatrist was the TRUTH for he understood her descent and helped her break the chains of hell and the great adversary.
Meghan, don’t let your enemies prosper at your demise and DESCEND INTO MADNESS. MANIC DEPRESSIVE ILLNESS, now called BI POLAR, is real. It is too late for Miles and Hemingway, Bird and VAN Gogh, but your trials have given you gifts to OVERCOME the WORLD.
Believe, MEGHAN, Believe…
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Dali Lama
