On the way back to Pasadena, George and Terry talked about the logistics of moving.
“How much stuff do you have in that trailer?” terry asked.
“Oh, not much, really. Some spare VW parts, a tired old broken down sofa, a TV, my instrument and stand and light and other music stuff, two straight chairs and a couple of folding chairs, some dishes and pots and pans, whatever food’s in the fridge, and Isolde’s and my clothes. That’s pretty much it. Most of the rest of the stuff in there came with the place. Oh – and the mouse.”
“Oh, yes. We mustn’t forget the mouse. What makes you think you can domesticate a field mouse?”
“Well, I don’t know if domesticate is exactly the right word. I figure I can keep him out of trouble, though, and he can die of old age. I remember reading somewhere that mice only live for a couple of years, at most.”
“That’s in the wild, where predators and disease take their natural toll. In captivity, they have been known to live up to ten years. Are you prepared to take on that kind of commitment?”
“What are my choices? I trapped ‘im, so now his life is in my hands. The rescuer is as beholden to the rescuee, as vice versa.”
“That sounds like Taoist philosophy,” said Terry.
“Actually, I think it was Lao Tze whom, I believe started off following the teachings of Confucius. So maybe he didn’t think of it first.”
“Now that you say it, I think you’re right. How did you come to know about those guys?” Terry asked.
“Well, it’s a long story. When we were starving, and Mom was not getting any help from either my dad or the state, she said that the Judeo-Christian idea of God must be mistaken, because He would never let that happen to people who didn’t deserve it. I don’t think she ever read Job, but anyway, she got all pissed off at the church, and started looking around for some other place to worship on Sundays. There was this group – a Humanist organization that called itself The Baltimore Ethical Society. So she started attending their services. Well – I was just a kid, I guess I must have been about eight or nine, and the Sunday School program was based on the idea that kids should be able to make an informed decision as to what religion, if any, they wanted to accept. So the Sunday school had a curriculum that taught all the major belief systems. They started with the Druids, and the Norse Gods – Thor and all those, then, as the kids progressed, they learned about the Egyptian Gods, the Greek and Roman Gods, and so on, up to modern religions. Along the way, they read selections from Confucius, Lao Tze, The Bahagvad Gita, The Koran, the Old and New Testaments, and even Plato and Socrates. By the time I was fourteen or so, I knew more comparative religion than most college graduates.” George said. “Except, maybe Saint Johnnies,” he added, and laughed.
“Yeah, well those guys are a breed unto themselves, that’s for sure,” Terry agreed.
“Well, look at their required readings. And they don’t just read that stuff – they discuss it, and have to do papers on it. You’d be a little strange too, if you spent a semester on St. Thomas A Kempis.”
“A Kempis? Who’s he? I’ve heard of St. Thomas Aquinnis, but not A Kempis.”
“Oh, he was a Reformation Jesuit Priest. He came up with, among other things, the concept of Good Works, that John Calvin glommed onto, and that eventually became The Puritans and later, The New England Congregationalists.”
“I thought you said you were a Music Major. Where’d you get all this history background. Don’t forget to turn left up here.”
“Got it. Well, I thought history was kind of interesting – even considered changing majors for a while there, so I took a lot of history courses. How come you know about the oriental philosophies and all that? Was it required reading for an Ag degree?”
Terry laughed. “Not hardly. I was fed up with having to confess my sins, and was dating a girl who was majoring in Philosophy. We used to have long discussions about what she called my ‘quest for the Holy Grail’.”
“Just out of sheer curiosity, what did you settle on?”
“My favorite of the bunch is Reformed Judaism. But I’m not actively practicing, so I like to think of myself as a reformed Reformed Jew. It comes in handy when I want to use words such as ‘schlep’ and ‘macher’. Until I became a reformed Jew, I wasn’t allowed to say those things, because I lacked the proper ethnic background.”
“Okay – Now you’re putting me on.”
“Well yeah, the last part about using Yiddish. The rest is all straight up, though.”
George pulled into the driveway next to Terry’s jeep.
“I just had a thought,” Terry said. “We can haul all the big stuff – both yours and mine in one trip, if we use the tractor and the hay wagon. Then we could each get the small stuff individually, and have all this done by tonight.”
“I think that is a great idea. For tomorrow, that is. I don’t want to be that exhausted tonight.”
“Oh yeah. I hadn’t thought of that.”
George laughed. “Of course not, but I’ll bet if I had suggested it tomorrow you would have.”
“You bet your ass I would have,” Terry said and grinned. Then they both laughed.
“You know what, George? I like you.