Sunday, June 28, 2015

Some foolish late-night reflections


Pace Robert Frost ("Reflection on The Road Not Taken")

In 1968 I contemplated becoming a German -- a  Prussian even.  The great marker of the Prussian is precise punctuality.  And I have that.  Joe does too so we often have some very precise arrangements between us which we both appreciate.  And Joe has a very military (and hence Prussian) attitude to food (refueling) too, which I also had at his age.  And I would certainly have been happy to wear a Pickelhaube, long gone though that now is.  And I am in fact a former army man anyway.  Prussians are particularly known as soldiers  -- not that I was a good one.

And Germany's rich cultural life would have suited me down to the ground.

In 1968 I had just completed an honours degree which included German II and in that year we did get some of our lectures in German -- about such world significant figures as Brockes (forgive the sarcasm) so my German was a lot better at that stage than it is now --  over 40 years later.  And I did take out in Sydney at that stage a German lady of elevated station back in German society.

So I thought of becoming a German and moving into a good position with her in German society. But being rather lazy, it seemed like too much trouble and Sydney women presented many interesting  possibilities too.  I even took for a short while an interest in a very shapely lady called Diane Rosenbloom -- with limited success.  It occurred to me only afterwards that Rosenbloom is an irrefragably Ashkenazi name so, not being Jewish, my chances with her had been minimal anyway.  She was a nice lady so I imagine that she entered shortly thereafter into a community-sanctioned marriage.

But what if I had realized then that I could possibly meet Ingeborg Hallstein in Germany?  Would I have decided differently? I might have.  I have just finished watching for the umpteenth time a 1971 recording of the wonderful Strauss II operetta Wiener Blut -- featuring as Graefin the beautiful coloratura soprano Ingeborg Hallstein, whom I see as the ultimate lady.  I was 25 in 1968 and she would have been 32.  That sort of age gap has never been a problem for me so what if I had gone to Germany and encountered her long, beautiful and wise face before me there?



I think I might have had a a chance with her.  I have always said that I get on with only about 1% of the world's women but that is one heck of a lot of ladies.  And the 1% ALWAYS includes classical music lovers -- which is my great delight too.  And that 1% is also pretty coterminous with the top 1% in IQ.

And most high IQ ladies are not at all comfortable with men who are dumber than them.  They have to be very good-natured to put up with it at all.  Though some wise ones do. So being in the top stratum myself, the very best women are accessible to me

So I have no doubt that Hallstein chose in her life men as musical as she is.  But although I am no good even as a bathroom singer, I would still, I think,  have had a chance with her.  IQ plus my devotion to classsical music might have won the day. A smart lady who sees my mocking blue eyes upon her knows immediately what company she has and regards it as at least interesting

And I did anyway many years later meet a Brisbane person who was also an ultimate lady. I had just married at the time but I knew an ultimate lady when I met one so a change of loyalties was rapidly accomplished.  Definitely Wiener Blut!

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