Play On!

“Somebody Loves Me” was a song written by George Gershwin in 1924, and this song brightened up that year for me tremendously, as I was, at age 3, quite affected by auditory stimuli of a congenial nature.

Some things take longer to learn than others while one is hoofing it amid the pitfalls on “the rock road of life.” But it seems to me that starting out with a healthy respect for human love sets the stage for happiness far ahead.

Anyhow, patient person that I am, I got the payoff before I was 60. This alluring kid took one look at me and said, “He’s the one!”

That’s been 31 years now, and it’s been peachy, hunky-dory — even swell — ever since.

I’ve still got all my stuff, although one day, a few years back, a CPA came by and I signed a couple of papers that didn’t disrupt anything at the time.

I casually asked him if I had agreed to give my b.w. anything.

“Yes, ” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“Everything ya got.”

“Fair enough.” I smiled. My stuff wasn’t doing me much good anyway.

I was humming, “Somebody loves me, I wonder who ….” Suddenly b.w. finished the line, “Maybe it’s me.”

Now I’m worrying myself to death trying to figure out how a guy should handle that one little word, “maybe.”

Women have never been any problem to me, as you can see — I’ve got ’em completely figured out; it helps, believe me. It’s just their minds that confuse me. The rest is simple.

Someone asked me recently why it is that my b.w. of all these years and I seem to sail along so smoothly while getting so much done.

My response was almost automatic: “We’re partners in all we do.” When marriage brings a highly intelligent mind into your mix, you would be a fool indeed to go it alone from then on.

My concept of “human intelligence” requires that the male and the female each bring entirely different halves into what then becomes the ideal whole human intelligence.

Simple observation leads to the conclusion that men and women do not think exactly in the same way, but that each brings what the other by nature may lack, that they complement each other.

People who remain unmarried their whole lives may feel that something is missing in their daily existence. They may go where they want to and do what they want to without discussion or resistance, but the end result may somehow not be completely exhilarating or satisfying.

Partnership brings the possibility of triumph in two areas: 1) the solution of the problem at hand, and 2) the working together of two minds in productive harmony.

There is, of course, the opposite side of the coin: When two people are hooked, legally or otherwise, and stick it out amid strife and ill humor.

Nothing is worse than this kind of situation, which is “hell on wheels” for two adults and not much better for any children in the home. Even cats and dogs seem to live nervously in such circumstances.

Me? I got it made, and I’m grateful!

I think …

Who is Roney?

Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF

2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award

(Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)