Friday, May 25, 2007

Marriage (To Be or Not To Be?)


Emile Zola was a French novelist (1840–1902). An excellent literary work of his is “The Death of Olivier Becaille”. This story is about a husband, whom after being ill, crosses the threshold into a comma and is buried alive. Fortunately, the man painstakingly escapes the 6 foot destiny. My question is, after reading the following excerpts; could the Author have actually been describing a means to end a marriage? And so we begin to ponder:


CHAPTER I My Passing


It was on a Saturday, at six in the morning, that I died after a three days' illness...


CHAPTER IV The Nail


…That roar of voices aroused me. Where was I? In the tunnel, of course. I was lying at full length; hard walls were pressing against my ribs. Then I attempted to rise and struck my head roughly. Was it the rock closing in on all sides? The blue speck had vanished--aye, the sky had disappeared and I was still suffocating, shivering, with chattering teeth.


All at once I remembered. Intense horror raised my hair on end. I felt the hideous truth freeze me from head to foot like ice. I had shaken off the long coma which for many hours had stricken me with corpselike rigidity. Yes, I could move; my hands could feel the boards of my coffin; my lips parted; words came to me, and instinctively I called out Marguerite's name. It was a scream I raised. In that deal box my voice took so hoarse and weird a sound that it terrified me. Oh, my God, was this thing true? I was able to walk, speak, cry out that I was living, and yet my voice could not be heard; I was entombed under the earth.


I made a desperate effort to remain calm and reflect. Was there no means of getting out? Then my dream began afresh in my troubled brain. The fanciful air shaft with the blue bit of sky overhead was mingled with the real grave in which I was lying. I stared at the darkness with widely opened eyes; perhaps I might discover a hole, a slit, a glimmer of light, but only sparks of fire flitted through that night, with rays that broadened and then faded away. I was in a somber abyss again. With returning lucidity I struggled against these fatal visions. Indeed, I should need all my reason if I meant to try to save myself.


The most immediate peril lay in an increasing sense of suffocation. If I had been able to live so long without air it was owing to suspended animation, which had changed all the normal conditions of my existence, but now that my heart beat and my lungs breathed I should die, asphyxiated, if I did not promptly liberate myself. I also suffered from cold and dreaded lest I should succumb to the mortal numbness of those who fall asleep in the snow, never to wake again. Still, while unceasingly realizing the necessity of remaining calm, I felt maddening blasts sweep through my brain, and to quiet my senses I exhorted myself to patience, trying to remember the circumstances of my burial. Probably the ground had been bought for five years, and this would be against my chances of self- deliverance, for I remembered having noticed at Nantes that in the trenches of the common graves one end of the last lowered coffins protruded into the next open cavity, in which case I should only have had to break through one plank. But if I were in a separate hole, filled up above me with earth, the obstacles would prove too great. Had I not been told that the dead were buried six feet deep in Paris? How was I to get through the enormous mass of soil above me? Even if I succeeded in slitting the lid of my bier open the mold would drift in like fine sand and fill my mouth and eyes. That would be death again, a ghastly death, like drowning in mud.


However, I began to feel the planks carefully. The coffin was roomy, and I found that I was able to move my arms with tolerable ease. On both sides the roughly planed boards were stout and resistive. I slipped my arm onto my chest to raise it over my head. There I discovered in the top plank a knot in the wood which yielded slightly at my pressure. Working laboriously, I finally succeeded in driving out this knot, and on passing my finger through the hole I found that the earth was wet and clayey. But that availed me little. I even regretted having removed the knot, vaguely dreading the irruption of the mold. A second experiment occupied me for a while. I tapped all over the coffin to ascertain if perhaps there were any vacuum outside. But the sound was everywhere the same. At last, as I was slightly kicking the foot of the coffin, I fancied that it gave out a clearer echoing noise, but that might merely be produced by the sonority of the wood.


At any rate, I began to press against the boards with my arms and my closed fists. In the same way, too, I used my knees, my back and my feet without eliciting even a creak from the wood. I strained with all my strength, indeed, with so desperate an effort of my whole frame, that my bruised bones seemed breaking. But nothing moved, and I became insane.


Until that moment I had held delirium at bay. I had mastered the intoxicating rage which was mounting to my head like the fumes of alcohol; I had silenced my screams, for I feared that if I again cried out aloud I should be undone. But now I yelled; I shouted; unearthly howls which I could not repress came from my relaxed throat. I called for help in a voice that I did not recognize, growing wilder with each fresh appeal and crying out that I would not die. I also tore at the wood with my nails; I writhed with the contortions of a caged wolf. I do not know how long this fit of madness lasted, but I can still feel the relentless hardness of the box that imprisoned me; I can still hear the storm of shrieks and sobs with which I filled it; a remaining glimmer of reason made me try to stop, but I could not do so.


Great exhaustion followed. I lay waiting for death in a state of somnolent pain. The coffin was like stone, which no effort could break, and the conviction that I was powerless left me unnerved, without courage to make any fresh attempts. Another suffering-- hunger--was presently added to cold and want of air. The torture soon became intolerable. With my finger I tried to pull small pinches of earth through the hole of the dislodged knot, and I swallowed them eagerly, only increasing my torment. Tempted by my flesh, I bit my arms and sucked my skin with a fiendish desire to drive my teeth in, but I was afraid of drawing blood.


Then I ardently longed for death. All my life long I had trembled at the thought of dissolution, but I had come to yearn for it, to crave for an everlasting night that could never be dark enough. How childish it had been of me to dread the long, dreamless sleep, the eternity of silence and gloom! Death was kind, for in suppressing life it put an end to suffering. Oh, to sleep like the stones, to be no more!


With groping hands I still continued feeling the wood, and suddenly I pricked my left thumb. That slight pain roused me from my growing numbness. I felt again and found a nail--a nail which the undertaker's men had driven in crookedly and which had not caught in the lower wood. It was long and very sharp; the head was secured to the lid, but it moved. Henceforth I had but one idea--to possess myself of that nail--and I slipped my right hand across my body and began to shake it. I made but little progress, however; it was a difficult job, for my hands soon tired, and I had to use them alternately. The left one, too, was of little use on account of the nail's awkward position.


While I was obstinately persevering a plan dawned on my mind. That nail meant salvation, and I must have it. But should I get it in time? Hunger was torturing me; my brain was swimming; my limbs were losing their strength; my mind was becoming confused. I had sucked the drops that trickled from my punctured finger, and suddenly I bit my arm and drank my own blood! Thereupon, spurred on by pain, revived by the tepid, acrid liquor that moistened my lips, I tore desperately at the nail and at last I wrenched it off!


I then believed in success. My plan was a simple one; I pushed the point of the nail into the lid, dragging it along as far as I could in a straight line and working it so as to make a slit in the wood. My fingers stiffened, but I doggedly persevered, and when I fancied that I had sufficiently cut into the board I turned on my stomach and, lifting myself on my knees and elbows thrust the whole strength of my back against the lid. But although it creaked it did not yield; the notched line was not deep enough. I had to resume my old position--which I only managed to do with infinite trouble--and work afresh. At last after another supreme effort the lid was cleft from end to end.


I was not saved as yet, but my heart beat with renewed hope. I had ceased pushing and remained motionless, lest a sudden fall of earth should bury me. I intended to use the lid as a screen and, thus protected, to open a sort of shaft in the clayey soil. Unfortunately I was assailed by unexpected difficulties. Some heavy clods of earth weighed upon the boards and made them unmanageable; I foresaw that I should never reach the surface in that way, for the mass of soil was already bending my spine and crushing my face.


Once more I stopped, affrighted; then suddenly, while I was stretching my legs, trying to find something firm against which I might rest my feet, I felt the end board of the coffin yielding. I at once gave a desperate kick with my heels in the faint hope that there might be a freshly dug grave in that direction.


It was so. My feet abruptly forced their way into space. An open grave was there; I had only a slight partition of earth to displace, and soon I rolled into the cavity. I was saved!


I remained for a time lying on my back in the open grave, with my eyes raised to heaven. It was dark; the stars were shining in a sky of velvety blueness. Now and then the rising breeze wafted a springlike freshness, a perfume of foliage, upon me. I was saved! I could breathe; I felt warm, and I wept and I stammered, with my arms prayerfully extended toward the starry sky. O God, how sweet seemed life!


CHAPTER V My Resurrection


My first impulse was to find the custodian of the cemetery and ask him to have me conducted home, but various thoughts that came to me restrained me from following that course. My return would create general alarm; why should I hurry now that I was master of the situation? I felt my limbs; I had only an insignificant wound on my left arm, where I had bitten myself, and a slight feverishness lent me unhoped-for strength. I should no doubt be able to walk unaided.


Still I lingered; all sorts of dim visions confused my mind. I had felt beside me in the open grave some sextons' tools which had been left there, and I conceived a sudden desire to repair the damage I had done, to close up the hole through which I had crept, so as to conceal all traces of my resurrection. I do not believe that I had any positive motive in doing so. I only deemed it useless to proclaim my adventure aloud, feeling ashamed to find myself alive when the whole world thought me dead. In half an hour every trace of my escape was obliterated, and then I climbed out of the hole.


The night was splendid, and deep silence reigned in the cemetery; the black trees threw motionless shadows over the white tombs. When I endeavored to ascertain my bearings I noticed that one half of the sky was ruddy, as if lit by a huge conflagration; Paris lay in that direction, and I moved toward it, following a long avenue amid the darkness of the branches.


However, after I had gone some fifty yards I was compelled to stop, feeling faint and weary. I then sat down on a stone bench and for the first time looked at myself. I was fully attired with the exception that I had no hat. I blessed my beloved Marguerite for the pious thought which had prompted her to dress me in my best clothes--those which I had worn at our wedding. That remembrance of my wife brought me to my feet again. I longed to see her without delay.


At the farther end of the avenue I had taken a wall arrested my progress. However, I climbed to the top of a monument, reached the summit of the wall and then dropped over the other side. Although roughly shaken by the fall, I managed to walk for a few minutes along a broad deserted street skirting the cemetery. I had no notion as to where I might be, but with the reiteration of monomania I kept saying to myself that I was going toward Paris and that I should find the Rue Dauphine somehow or other. Several people passed me but, seized with sudden distrust, I would not stop them and ask my way. I have since realized that I was then in a burning fever and already nearly delirious. Finally, just as I reached a large thoroughfare, I became giddy and fell heavily upon the pavement.


Here there is a blank in my life. For three whole weeks I remained unconscious. When I awoke at last I found myself in a strange room. A man who was nursing me told me quietly that he had picked me up one morning on the Boulevard Montparnasse and had brought me to his house. He was an old doctor who had given up practicing.


When I attempted to thank him he sharply answered that my case had seemed a curious one and that he had wished to study it. Moreover, during the first days of my convalescence he would not allow me to ask a single question, and later on he never put one to me. For eight days longer I remained in bed, feeling very weak and not even trying to remember, for memory was a weariness and a pain. I felt half ashamed and half afraid. As soon as I could leave the house I would go and find out whatever I wanted to know. Possibly in the delirium of fever a name had escaped me; however, the doctor never alluded to anything I may have said. His charity was not only generous; it was discreet.


The summer had come at last, and one warm June morning I was permitted to take a short walk. The sun was shining with that joyous brightness which imparts renewed youth to the streets of old Paris. I went along slowly, questioning the passers-by at every crossing I came to and asking the way to Rue Dauphine. When I reached the street I had some difficulty in recognizing the lodginghouse where we had alighted on our arrival in the capital. A childish terror made me hesitate. If I appeared suddenly before Marguerite the shock might kill her. It might be wiser to begin by revealing myself to our neighbor Mme Gabin; still I shrank from taking a third party into confidence. I seemed unable to arrive at a resolution, and yet in my innermost heart I felt a great void, like that left by some sacrifice long since consummated.


The building looked quite yellow in the sunshine. I had just recognized it by a shabby eating house on the ground floor, where we had ordered our meals, having them sent up to us. Then I raised my eyes to the last window of the third floor on the left-hand side, and as I looked at it a young woman with tumbled hair, wearing a loose dressing gown, appeared and leaned her elbows on the sill. A young man followed and printed a kiss upon her neck. It was not Marguerite. Still I felt no surprise. It seemed to me that I had dreamed all this with other things, too, which I was to learn presently.


For a moment I remained in the street, uncertain whether I had better go upstairs and question the lovers, who were still laughing in the sunshine. However, I decided to enter the little restaurant below. When I started on my walk the old doctor had placed a five- franc piece in my hand. No doubt I was changed beyond recognition, for my beard had grown during the brain fever, and my face was wrinkled and haggard. As I took a seat at a small table I saw Mme Gabin come in carrying a cup; she wished to buy a penny-worth of coffee. Standing in front of the counter, she began to gossip with the landlady of the establishment.


"Well," asked the latter, "so the poor little woman of the third floor has made up her mind at last, eh?"


"How could she help herself?" answered Mme Gabin. "It was the very best thing for her to do. Monsieur Simoneau showed her so much kindness. You see, he had finished his business in Paris to his satisfaction, for he has inherited a pot of money. Well, he offered to take her away with him to his own part of the country and place her with an aunt of his, who wants a housekeeper and companion.


The landlady laughed archly. I buried my face in a newspaper which I picked off the table. My lips were white and my hands shook.


"It will end in a marriage, of course," resumed Mme Gabin. "The little widow mourned for her husband very properly, and the young man was extremely well behaved. Well, they left last night--and, after all, they were free to please themselves."


Just then the side door of the restaurant, communicating with the passage of the house, opened, and Dede appeared.


"Mother, ain't you coming?" she cried. "I'm waiting, you know; do be quick."


"Presently," said the mother testily. "Don't bother."


The girl stood listening to the two women with the precocious shrewdness of a child born and reared amid the streets of Paris.


"When all is said and done," explained Mme Gabin, "the dear departed did not come up to Monsieur Simoneau. I didn't fancy him overmuch; he was a puny sort of a man, a poor, fretful fellow, and he hadn't a penny to bless himself with. No, candidly, he wasn't the kind of husband for a young and healthy wife, whereas Monsieur Simoneau is rich, you know, and as strong as a Turk."


"Oh yes!" interrupted Dede. "I saw him once when he was washing-- his door was open. His arms are so hairy!"


"Get along with you," screamed the old woman, shoving the girl out of the restaurant. "You are always poking your nose where it has no business to be."


Then she concluded with these words: "Look here, to my mind the other one did quite right to take himself off. It was fine luck for the little woman!"


When I found myself in the street again I walked along slowly with trembling limbs. And yet I was not suffering much; I think I smiled once at my shadow in the sun. It was quite true. I WAS very puny. It had been a queer notion of mine to marry Marguerite. I recalled her weariness at Guerande, her impatience, her dull, monotonous life. The dear creature had been very good to me, but I had never been a real lover; she had mourned for me as a sister for her brother, not otherwise. Why should I again disturb her life? A dead man is not jealous.


When I lifted my eyelids I saw the garden of the Luxembourg before me. I entered it and took a seat in the sun, dreaming with a sense of infinite restfulness. The thought of Marguerite stirred me softly. I pictured her in the provinces, beloved, petted and very happy. She had grown handsomer, and she was the mother of three boys and two girls. It was all right. I had behaved like an honest man in dying, and I would not commit the cruel folly of coming to life again.


Since then I have traveled a good deal. I have been a little everywhere. I am an ordinary man who has toiled and eaten like anybody else. Death no longer frightens me, but it does not seem to care for me now that I have no motive in living, and I sometimes fear that I have been forgotten upon earth.

The End


Again I wonder and ask, could the Author have actually been describing another way to end a marriage instead of going through a divorce? Such as walking out on the marriage itself – like some type of ‘deadbeat’ husband?

The illness, the comma – digging himself out of the grave, his recovery – all about the husband’s struggle with and seemingly triumph over depression?


(Here is the link to The Death of Olivier Becaille Complete Story)

Also available at Amazon.com! Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (June 30, 2004)

Monday, May 07, 2007

Life-Size Posters of Parents Actively Serving OverSeas in the Military

Flat Daddies and Flat Mommies are life-size printed posters of parents who are actively serving overseas in the military. These posters are made available free* to the children of deployed service members through the generous support of sponsors. FlatDaddies.com is dedicated to helping make this possible.

* Plus $9.50 shipping and handling, one per household, and a limited number are available weekly.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Flatdaddies Mailing List"
To:
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 9:26 AM
Subject: Flatdaddies News

As a recipient or friend of Flat Daddies, I thought you might be interested in a quick update. Please feel free to share this with friends and family.

1,700 Flat Daddies And Counting…

We have received over 1,700 Flat Daddy orders to date, with over 700 shipped to deserving children and families across the country and around the world.

An Easy Way To Help

Our current resources and sponsor commitments enable us to produce around 60 Flat Daddies per week, which does not even come close to meeting the demand that we are seeing daily. To help remedy the problem we recently made it easier for individuals to donate online via our website www.FlatDaddies.com/donate. Anything you can do to introduce the Flat Daddies donation link to others would be greatly appreciated.

NEW :: Flat Families For Mother's and Father's Day 2007

Moms and Dads deployed overseas may be receiving a Flat Family for Mother's and Father's Day. Using what we learned during Flat Daddies we are now offering Flat Families using a new silky smooth, durable, two-sided fabric. Simply upload your family photo, complete the order form, pay and click. In around two weeks a Flat Family will arrive at your loved one's door – just in time for Mother's or Father's Day!

Proceeds generated from Flat Families will help us offset the cost of continuing the Flat Daddies program. To send a Mother's Day gift please have orders in by 5:00 pm (EST) on May 4th, Father's Day orders should be in by June 6th. To learn more, or to order please visit www.fabricfamily.com.

Thank you for your attention and support.


Eric T. Crockett

National Program Director

SFC Flat Daddies


Binding Ink is not associated with Flat Daddies... This is only a Post to help introduce Flat Daddies. Enjoy!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Love The Greatest Survival?

Hello My Readers, it has been awhile since I have written a personal post here on Binding Ink. Previous post included my Friend D. G. and his pet roaches. Poetry by my Friend D. G. And a one time Friend of mine – Poet/Writer Jen whom was sadly murdered Unfinished Masterpiece (Serendipity Part 2) . Today I would like to talk about survival. In a section on Blogger called ‘About Me’ I have added the following along with a question for you Readers:


About Me
A Survivor: I survived the truth! I'm a survivor! As a child, when I learned that there was no true holiday Mascots (encase kids read this and don't know the truth yet, lets just use the word mascots), I survived. When society said there were houses with white picket fences, I survived the truth which is you're lucky if some people have a tent to live in. When Friendships that were suppose to be for a life-time, turned out to only be my judges-I survived! The truth is, they weren't my true Friends to begin with! When many a Lover departed, I survived the truth! They weren't my True Love. Though, if one day I should learn that there is no such thing as a one and only True Love, guess what? I'll survive that truth too, cause I am a Survivor! Are you?


I draw attention to this, one to encourage People to recognize the Survivor inside themselves and I gladly welcome you to share your triumphs. Secondly, beside Mascots and white picket fences, in your opinion - what other seemingly myths has Society proclaimed? Have these seemingly myths helped or hindered Society? Thirdly, it is important to realize that survival covers a wide range of areas. Physical, mental, emotional, circumstances … Those who have Survived breast cancer… Those who have Survived a crisis such as a death… Those whom have Survived rape… Those who have or are Surviving war….


Having clarified survival so more People can recognize themselves as a Survivor, I am still drawn to my last line in ‘About Me’, “Though, if one day I should learn that there is no such thing as a one and only True Love, guess what? I'll survive that truth too”. Perhaps it is the Poet in me or the fact that many a poem and songs have been written about surviving love, loss, and longing. Therefore; I leave you my Readers with my contribution to such:


Some where between life and death,
I have died and am faking being alive
But this dress rehearsal is getting old
Wrinkles have already set in
Just once before actual death beckons me back home
I would like to truly live
To dance beyond the curtain, into my ‘Happy Ever After’
Oh, how does it really feel to have someone love you, as you love them
For hence is where the purest magic begins
Whence two hearts unite – sparks ignite
Twice the energy – twice the life
As all of yesterdays shadows slowly disappear
You emerge as one to concur the world as two individuals among the living
Alive and well ‘until death do us part’
But for now I must set aside these dreams
For hope is such a fragile thing
Meanwhile the show must go on, as must I
And dawn another day of dress rehearsal,
On this stage called life.
Written by © - Jeane Michelle Culp


Todays’ question: I am a Survivor! Are you?

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