Category: Living my Life

The saying, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” is credited to Alexander Pope, but it is actually a misquote. What he said in An Essay on Criticism, is “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”

So this is interesting. Alexander Pope was the first to say it, but that’s not what he said.  Then who . . .? What . . .?

Oh well, I digress. Because regardless  of who said it, it is true. Just watch American’s Funniest Videos. With just a little learning, certain behavior might seem like a good idea, but you might want to think it through a little more thoroughly. The tipsy wedding guest has seen Fred Astaire dance on tables. It can be done. The knowledge he’s missing is that tables in movie studios are heavy duty and bolted to the floor!

This week I saw a link: You’re Loading Your Dishwasher Wrong. The promise was a lot of money saved if you learned to do it right. I didn’t click. No point. Because since the dishwasher was invented in 1920 no two people have agreed on how to load it.

Of course the electronic age offers a wealth of opportunities to err in the use of devices and apps using the small amount of learning we have. Emailing a private message to a large listserve; venting on Facebook thinking only your friends can see.

Several years ago when texting was introduced, I had an acquaintance so entranced with it she declared: “I love this! From now on this is my means of communication. No more email. I won’t answer the phone. Just text.”

What she had missed was the part about the other party being able to receive. I missed her message when she texted my land line.

Now we have hoverboards. A whole new way to demonstrate that one knows a little bit about a few things . . . just enough to make him dangerous.

Thanks to hoverboards, America’s Funniest Videos will never lack material.

The past year was good for me. I had vacation times with my children, a writer’s retreat, published a book of essays, and appeared as Mrs. Dubose in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

One particular highlight came in the fall at the Archie Awards at Center on the Square Theater. But let me give you a little backstory.

When I was 15 years old, I saw Annie Get Your Gun at the Dallas Summer Musicals. A quick 50 years later, I played a social matron in a production of that play in Madison, Tennessee.

I had long been smitten with live theater, and thoroughly convinced that “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

In 2000, shortly after I retired and moved to Arkansas, I attended open auditions at Center On the Square Theater in Searcy. I landed a part as the mother-in-law in Moon Over Buffalo. Thus began my career onstage . . . type-cast as a little old lady.

Sometimes I was a sweet little old lady — as in The Homecoming, God’s Favorite, The Miracle Worker, The Cemetery Club,  and It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Sometimes not so sweet — as in Lost in Yonkers  or To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Often I had a smart mouth — Bull in a China Shop, Moon Over Buffalo and The Women. 

And a few times I had either scattered my marbles or lost them completely — The Dining Room, No, Not Really, I’m Herbert, and Leading Ladies. 

Though it’s not my specialty, sometimes I spoke with an other-than-Southern accent  — Lost In Yonkers, I Hate Hamlet, and Hocus Pocus.

The past 15 years have been a tremendous amount of fun. As I said, I love live theater, whether I’m on stage, back stage, or in the audience.

In October, at The Archies Award Night, I received a life-time achievement award . . . the first the committee has ever awarded. “. . . to someone who has dedicated the majority of (her) life to the arts. This is someone who has been in more shows than you can count. . .”

Actually, I can count them . . . twenty since 2001. And next time Center on the Square produces a play featuring a little old lady . . . who knows, maybe I’ll be there again.