Through the Looking Glass VI

‘And then [Trump] said to Martin: "Your father was a fighter?" "Yeah he was." Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah! "And look at you — you're so smooth and handsome!"’

Five men with a little bog in their souls

The sixth episode of TTLG is, by general agreement, the best so far. I think it’s because we’re eventually finding the mojo we intuited for it at the beginning: that the root of its main chord would be in the talking rather than necessarily the topics. The first five were, to varying degrees, dependent on topicality or relevance — what you might call their buzzworthiness — but this one stands on its own four feet as a conversation between two living men, looking at the world from a vantage point rendered obvious by the surroundings, speaking from the collateral of their years rather than the surety of their ‘takes’.

I won’t say any more about it other than to hand you over to Gerry’s resonant introduction:

Meditations in a Tool-shed

By Gerry O’Neill

At some point in the future I may write about the experience of engaging in this podcast series, Through The Looking Glass, with John Waters. On a personal level, at various times it has felt like a most profound and moving journey.

I raise this today to make a point about the title I’ve chosen for our sixth episode. On Thursday, a day before recording, I met man for a cup of coffee. He came bearing gifts although I didn’t see all of them until after we parted. One of the physical presents was a book titled The Greatest Philosopher Who Ever Lived, inscribed with a lovely personal message. Later that night, I randomly picked up the book and began to turn a couple of the pages, trying to distract myself away from over-thinking too much about the followings day’s conversation with John.

The author didn’t reveal the name of this greatest philosopher until the reader found the patience to read a few pages of the book. Then, I found that Mary, Mother of God, was the name offered up. I was surprised and then after a smidgen of reflection decided I probably shouldn’t have been. However, a couple of paragraphs after her name came another name, along with an essay: C.S. Lewis and an essay of his called ‘Meditations in a Tool-shed’. My late night lethargy vanished in an instant. Our scheduled episode the following day was to take place in a tool-shed. There was in an inescapable spirit clue here, if I could just still myself enough to see it, I felt. In his essay ‘Meditations in a Tool-shed’, C.S. Lewis explores the distinction between two ways of understanding: looking at and looking along. The personal experience versus the observational truth of watching for a distance aside. Both contain truths. Whether it be understanding love, pain, religion, faith or anything really. This metaphor was illustrated by a beam of light into a darkened tool-shed. When Lewis stood in the beam, he saw only the specks of dust within it (looking at) and could see nothing outside of it, but when he moved so the beam falls on his eyes, he sees the world outside, including leaves and the trace of sunbeam all the way back to the sun (looking along).

The podcast episode came and went and still I didn’t understand the meaning of the message I was sure lay in the book. Until, I received the recording and listened to it back. I was surprised. The episode in its essence was something different than what I thought I experienced by being part of it. On one level, it is a conversation about the world we live in but I see now it is also a conversation about something else. A podcast episode about men. The good, the bad and some of the ugly of them too. Yesterday, including camera guys, host, and John and myself, there were only men present. The first episode such an occurrence has played fully out from start to finish. For good or ill, this is what we produced. Five men with a little bog in their soul. A lovely phrase and the final gift from the man in the coffee-shop.

Hope you enjoy it.

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