Granny & Danny or The Shiksa and the Mench

שיקסע and מענטש

This tour is a 3 part blog, this is part 1 of 3.

• 

To see a PICK-cha?

what kind of person would fly to paris several times?

To see a 100 year old PAINT-ing?

and fail.

It’s not even a new painting?

I ask you?

What kind’a poy-sun would drive over 400 miles through the traffic of New York City and the Green Mountains of Vermont, (over the river and through the woods…) in a single day?

To see a single work of art?

I’ll tell you what kind’a person?

משוגענער

A Mashugana Person – or maybe two!?

Ahem,

My mother was, shall we say, eccentric? I didn’t realize this until long after she died. Born in 1933, she was a liberated woman decades before anyone even conceived of the notion or the word. She was a professional opera singer, drove a car like a bat out of Hades, was passionate about travel, food, culture and was an ethos friend to old and young. She loved New York City and art. She took me to see everything outrageous. She took me to see “Cyrano de Bergerac” to experience one of the greatest Shakespearean Actor’s of the day, but the understudy performed that night. She took me to see it again several weeks later. I didn’t “like” the great Shakespearean actor. He was not as friendly or kindly and not as “likeable” in his performance of Cyrano. However the great “not likable” actors performance made me cry, several times. The 6 year old boy told mom “I didn’t like the great actor as much, he made me cry.” Mom was satisfied, life lesson taught.

Mom answered: “The purpose of art is to elicit emotion.”

Later I would learn; that is the difference between a GREAT actor and a good actor. The great actor doesn’t need me to like him. The great actor does not care if I “like” him. The great actor “acts” upon my heart and soul. The great actor elicits emotion.

Great art elicits strong emotion.

• 

But I digress.

400 miles in one day, 30 years of pursuit, to see a single work of art.

Diane would have done it in heartbeat.

and so did I.

To be continued………….

NEXT 2 out of 3 to I know the master cheesemaker (too)