porkchops & applesauce

poor peter brady. when a girl at school told him he had no personality peter fretted the whole 22 minute run-time of the brady bunch looking for a personality to call his own. he tried on a whole suite of personalities including ol' bogie's famous locutions and spoke out of the side of his mouth when alice, l'housekeeper terrible, or his mother, i can't remember which, told our hapless, bland, and empty peter that porkchops and applesauce were on the menu for that night's supper. ah, porkchops and applesauce, said peter in a nasal, flat delivery, doing his best bogie imitation. another personality to be had, tried on like a suit, then set aside all the while looking for the best suit that fits the frame of one idiot soul.

thus began an education in manners. personality is at the core of our human being but perhaps it is protean and develops, contracts and expands over time. james dickey was once advised by his wife to be himself when the poet was nervous reading before an audience. great, said big jim, i'll be myself but which one? ah, there's the rub. in poetry workshops often the instructor will say to her students, find your voice. or that the speaking voice of this poem is doing work, either this or that. there you have it, one voice, solid, present and unmistakable.

could there not be a cacophony of voices inside all solid, present and unmistakable? think about the various writers that lived inside pessoa. might there not be not just one voice, one style, but many voices and many styles living inside the writer as she goes thru her own changes. personality is perhaps not finite after all but fluid and un-fixed. existence before essence. create, become and unbecome all the while. poor peter brady should've responded with glee when that girl told our boy he had no personality. he should've said, cool, now i am free to create my own consciousness. i can create a whole lotta me's and there is that lot of me, you betcha, and all so luscious. dig in.