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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: To take a licking and keep on ticking This Another Angle, the Occasional Musings of a Kentucky Pastor "To take a licking and keep on ticking" was first published 29 January 2006/Hart County News Herald. To see other articles by this author, enter "Rev. Joey N. Welsh," or "Another Angle," in the searchbox. The next earlier essay posted on ColumbiaMagazine.com is Autumn Endings it By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh To take a licking and keep on ticking When I was a child I always enjoyed the commercials for Timex watches hosted by the respected news broadcaster, John Cameron Swayze. I some ways those television ads were a precursor of today's reality shows, though they were much shorter and far more clever. Time after time Swayze would show a Timex watch being strapped in some odd place -- on a bucking bronco, or on a baton carried by a dolphin through saltwater, on an outboard motor propeller, etc. -- at the end of which a camera close-up would show the watch still functioning. Then came Swayze's catch phrase, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking." I admired the timepieces, but over the years I have admired even more people who have exhibited the same quality, the ability to keep on in spite of hard knocks in life. As I watched the 2006 Gator Bowl I appreciated the way that Louisville's replacement quarterback, walk-on Hunter Cantwell, kept functioning with class even after his nose-breaking poundings. Books about American leaders One of my Christmas presents was a book, 1776, by David McCullough. It tells the story of the leaders of the American Revolution during its earliest year, when victory looked highly unlikely. Those leaders took several early lickings, and they kept on ticking. more than 230 years later, we still benefit from their stubborn sacrifice. Another Christmas gift book, Our Endangered Values, by Jimmy Carter, reminds me of the valuable and insightful life President Carter has led since his crushing loss in the 1980 election. Back then many people viewed Carter as a failure. Nowadays, though, I would gladly trade in some of his failures for the grand jury investigations, indictments, Abramoff revelations, and foreign policy miscalculations we now hear about on a daily basis. Robert Frost reading at Kennedy's inauguration Looking over the calendar of historic events, though, I was taken back to another childhood memory of licking/ticking. As a second grader I watched the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy in January, 1961. In honesty, I do not recall appreciating any of the oft-quoted lines from Kennedy's address. I do remember poet Robert Frost coming to the podium and speaking some lines of poetry. Frost was a national icon, a frail man with fading eyesight, who died but a couple of years later on January 29, 1963. Only when I was in college did I read of Frost's ordeal and triumph that snow-bright day in 1961. President-elect Kennedy had asked Frost to write a poem for the inauguration and come to read it as part of the ceremony. Frost, who disliked composing for specific occasions, declined. But Kennedy countered by asking him to read a poem from 1942, "The Gift Outright," a poem about the American people and their growing sense of oneness with their expanding nation. Poetry and politics and questionable updating It's a solid poem, though 21st Century critics sometimes attack its lack of consciousness about the effect of national expansion on native peoples. As for me, I'm impatient with people who impose contemporary sensibilities on long-dead literary figures instead of viewing them in the context of other writers in that same period. I have no doubt that Frost's work would be quite different if he lived today. The poem ends with a line referring to the nation, "Such as she was, such as she would become." Kennedy asked if Frost might consider altering the last line to read "...such as she will become" in order to sharpen the optimistic hope in the poem. Frost responded, "I suppose so." This story strikes me for two reasons. First, I can't imagine asking Robert Frost, of all people, to change one of his poems. Second, I find it hard to imagine many of today's political leaders caring enough about a poet's work, or even knowing enough about poetry, to ask him to alter it. Frost abandons reading new poem As events proceeded, Frost did write a long new poem containing over six dozen rhyming couplets, with some of the rhymes sounding very forced. This new poem ended with the lines, "A golden age of poetry and power / Of which this noonday's the beginning hour." It is not one of Frost's finer works, not in a league with the beloved Frost poems like "Birches," "The Road Not Taken," "The Pasture," "Death of the Hired Man," or "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." On the day of the festivities the podium was blindingly bright because of the full sun reflecting off the new snowfall. The 86-year-old Frost struggled to read the text of his new poem, then gave up and recited "The Gift Outright" flawlessly from memory. When he got to the last line he asked the audience's forbearance as he altered the closing words in his own graceful, classy way, never letting on that the change was a request from the new President. Frost closed, saying, "Such as she was, such as she would become, has become, and I -- and for this occasion let me change that to -- she will become." On that day Robert Frost took a licking in that blinding sunlight, and he carried on in inspiring fashion. May we all have the grace to meet life's challenges with the same class and fine spirit shown by Robert Frost on that sunny day over four decades ago. And may we all be resilient enough to take a licking - and keep on ticking. Now, going from the ridiculous to the sublime, let's leave the Timex jingle for the text of "The Gift Outright" by Robert Frost: The Gift OutrightE-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.comThe land was ours before we were the land's. This story was posted on 2011-09-25 05:12:10
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Commentary:
Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Autumn: Endings, beginnings, and transitions Doesn't understand Adair School Board and textbooks The Great Alcohol Debate: Mark Hale votes we stay dry Rev. Joey N. Welsh: That was her story Billy Joe Fudge: Another voice for slow eating Rev. Joey N. Welsh: From The Mouth Of Satchel Paige Made in the U.S.A. - One Adair County family's patriotic plan Rev. Joey N. Welsh - Keen eyes, striking images: Part 2 Freecycling ad helps put restricted gift in right hands Rev. Joey N. Welsh - Keen eyes, striking images: Part 1 View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
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