When the King dies, folk gather in the square and call out "Long Live the King." When a new pope or, in the most recent case, a kind of Second Pope is elected, the throngs of people call out "Habemus Pappam" .... We go yourselves a Pope.
To be an orphan ... to be without a Mother (Paul Robeson or Ritchie Havens singing? ... don't matter) or Father or, worse, to be without both is to be adrift. Mama and Papa not only provide safety but also provide answers to questions and directions on how to get certain things done.
Growing up and getting on in years ... Third Quarter ... Last Quarter .... highlights the frustration of recognizing that the Guru in the Saffron Robe? the analyst smoking his cigar? the doctor with his own name crocheted into his or her breast pocket? ... well, what to say? The curtain has been pulled away from the Great Oz. Can we make peace with that? I don't know .... ask a Guru!
There seem to be a number of types of reactions to being orphaned. One has the orphaned taking on all the roles that were once performed for him or her. "I can do anything better than you can," the song goes. Or, at least, I can muddle by doing it all. The whirling Dervish Orphan. S/he is faster than a speeding train and more powerful than a speeding bullet (even if s/he confuses things sometimes) and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. .... Eventually that person, like the aging cat who embarassedly misses the counter, fails to get a job done and gets frustrated. In the most disillusioned like Hemmingway, maybe, only one way out exists.
Another orphan feels thoroughly helpless to take on any of Mama and Papa's magical mystery tasks. Everything seems impossible or impossibly burdensome. Every counter is too tall to reach and all the cat food is on that counter. "If I could build me a ladder like my Daddy used to build, I could get there. But poor DaddyCat broke his neck on that last jump and I'm afraid to try."
Both solutions suck. One yields a sense of aloneness and the other? Depression.
There must be a middle ground, y'think?
Lemme try that leap, next time.
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