Louis Roney: A rakish halo

A friend of mine tells me I wear a “rakish halo.” To be an acceptable rake requires both historical knowledge and a measure of courage, for one must have the guts to step completely out of line from most of his compatriots.

To me any halo is a better hat than most I have yet worn. Shakespeare says: “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player who frets and struts his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” I’ll be glad to do my strutting under a nice glowing halo if given half a chance.

In my private life, I have made very little progress as a rake, but when someone else is writing the script, I can, at least, try to play-act the part on the stage.

The worst thing on Earth to me is boredom. And the devil never seems bored, or boring. What more can I tell you?

The average American seems to dream of coming someday to some kind of paradise –something similar to Florida, I guess. Well, you and I and lots of the other people we know are already in this Earthly paradise – but are you enjoying it the way you should? Is there something missing? If you’ve got the wrong wife/husband does Florida make things better? So, you insist on some other niceties too?

Up to now my existence is cluttered with a slew of questions but few, if any, answers that satisfy. Dissatisfaction may be divine, but it can sometimes be a pain in the derriere, I can tell you from “positional” experience.

I am always glad to encounter the words of William Ernest Henley:

“It matters not how strait the gate

How charged with punishment the scroll:

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul!”

I buy the words about being captain of my soul. But I’m not so sure that anyone is really master of his own fate, for fate is, it seems to me, a function of fortune, and fortune has a will of its own beyond our control.

Fate synonyms: chance, circumstance, destiny, future, providence – among many others. “Fate” describes a predestined course of events which we may attempt to influence strongly, but which one never completely controls.

May I suggest that the very unpredictability of fate is what makes our lives so precarious but also, so interesting. Think back to when you met your mate for the first time. If fate had been slightly different that day, would you ever have met that mate? As aftermaths: would you now be working in the same job, in the same town, living in the same house, sleeping in the same bed?

Many philosophers believe that we create our own fates, and I must agree that we often “set the stage” for the actions that may somehow seem to come about logically. If you like stamps and go to a stamp show, you have just raised the odds importantly that you will meet other stamp lovers. Buy a seat in Carnegie Hall and your chances are good you’ll sit by another music lover.

Plenty of regrettable things happen also by chance such as illness or accidents – but let’s stick to the good stuff.

I met b.w. because I offered to drive three ladies somewhere they needed to go and one of the women (who was single) seemed well worth calling later! Had I not offered to drive the three women to Williamsport, Pa. to sing a concert, I would not have set the stage for one of the most important happening in my life! In providing transportation for these ladies was I being the “master of my fate”, or “the captain of my soul?”

I now see that I was rolling the dice and taking a chance that something good might happen.

And, guess what – it did!