Mary Beth Writes

Where this blog-post started: Several posts ago “The Non-Consumer Advocate” was about clowns. Specifically, the weird clown flotsam one finds when thrifting.  Here’s what Katy Wolk-Stanley posted at her site. http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/goodwill-badwill-questionable-will-clowns-clowns-more-clowns/  

(If you are interested in listening in to a community of people sharing ordinary / extraordinary ways to spend / waste less in order to pursue bigger dreams and values, I recommend NCA. It’s one of my favs.)

So Iwas snarking at Katy’s clowns when for the first time in my long life it dawned on me what I was seeing.

Not just “camp” art.

Not just tasteless shlock.

Not just the tired decorating of “yesteryear”. 

What clowns are, I think, is 1920’s-1970’s era American language for alcoholics and alcoholism - before we developed modern language for alcoholics and alcoholism.

In our middle 30’s Len and I ‘woke’ to a reality that is so obvious now but was so surprising to us then, i.e., alcoholism.  Both of our families were hugely influenced by out-of-control drinking and out-of-control teetotalism/abstinence.  It started with our grandparent’ generation (and before, we presume) and was still roaring along inside the drunk and sober lives some cousins and siblings, as well as inside our own selves.

It was an interesting time for us. Yup. Here are some characteristics about clowns.  You might see the coincidences.

Sometimes clowns are charming and funny. Sometimes they act outside the accepted lines of how grown-ups are allowed to act – this is delightful to kids and surprises other adults. 

The clown with the flower that squirts water in the face of an important person? That’s fun.  Just like your cool uncle who won’t take “crap” from his boss anymore – so he loses his job and now his family is going to live rough until his unemployment runs out and he gets another job that he will keep a few months. 

Betcha two 36-packs of gas station beer I know what he will do during the day while his wife goes to work.

Or the aunt who hates her job yet gets up every day and goes to it and then comes home and does very damn thing she ought to do while sucking all the joy out of the air. Did she grow up in the chaos of alcoholism and so chose to never mess up – and she never has?  There’s often a mean clown who chases the fun clowns to make them do what they ought to do.

The Jekyll and Hyde clown?  The adult in some kid’s life who is sometimes violent and the kid is wary. But also, for reasons it take the kid years to understand, that adult can be really witty and imaginative and fun. You just never know.

The always-always-always happy clown.  The sloppy clown who forgets to zip his pants. The angry one with the gun that probably shoots flowers. The dangerous one who stars in creepy movies

Artists say they paint what’s scariest to take away its power. Writers write it. Poets say it. Women tell each other #MeToo.

Clowns are low-brow shamanism. Have you ever observed one adult giving another a clown figurine? It’s not a common gift these days, but I can still hear, “That clown just reminded me of … “.  Clowns never remind people of kind, normally-functional, give-and-take people. There will be a telling edge in there.

Or, you’ve seen this “art”.  A clown in heaven is talking on a phone to someone on earth; big ole red clown shoes and all. It’s ridiculous and poignant and why did that beloved relative die so young and leave us behind?

I don’t have much of a point besides this. Clowns are and were evocative language - without the accusing words – that reminded us that the people are flawed, dear, crazy, scary, and ours.

 I’m very glad that as a culture, we have evolved beyond the clown motif.  

So what’s with the Zombies?

Disclaimer and apology – Not every person who loves a clown is unconsciously dealing with their alcoholics of yore. People like what people like.  But it just seemed interesting enough to me to write about; how closely the clown theme stood in as a totem for what it was like to live with family members who were alcoholic.

Tags

Comments

Never thought about it but, yeah! I come from an alcoholic family and have spent many, many hours in Al-anon meetings trying to unravel my life and the way I react to things. It’s helped!
Mary Beth's picture

We are 30 years into understanding the patterns, and yet still so often come up against those same old same old responses to stress. At least now, when either of us have a BIG reaction to whatever (this morning it was the awful weather and plans having to change fast) ... at least we know to slow down and look at what's being triggered.

Clowns and alcoholism —- hmmmmmmm Zombies. I’ve watched a few episodes of “Santa Clarista Diet” with Drew Barrymore. She is “undead” very strange and I cringe (there is blood in there). But, I am weirdly liking the series. Either on Netflix or amazon prime. Can’t remember

Add new comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

GNTL - So Many Words!

5/30/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Words!

The month of May might have been above my paygrade. I contributed to a weeks-long writing project in our congregation. I met friends more often than usual to talk and catch up. Two grandkids came for a sleepover last week. Our daughter and her little dog spent last Friday with us. Saturday another grandkid slept over.

GNTL - Kathryn's Garden

5/29/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Kathryn’s Garden

My friend Kathryn sent some beautiful photos of her garden to me this morning, I asked if I could post them here and she said yes. 

Some of you know Kathryn Rouse so you know this is not a garden-come-lately. She’s been building and growing her garden since, I think, the late 1970’s. The bunny in a hurry is a Bill Reid sculpture.

I think Kathryn's photos are the right frame for the poem.

A-Z Observation

5/24/2023   O is for Observation

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a pre-telescope Danish astronomer who looked at the sky more precisely than anyone before him had done. He was obsessively careful about measuring what he saw and he studied the sky every night he could. To accomplish what he wanted he reinvented and fine-tuned the sky-gauging tools of his era – sextant and quadrant.

You may have seen these tools in paintings of old-time sailors. They would hold them up to their face, look at the stars, figure out where they were in the world.

GNTL - Squirrels & Gardens & the Sonoran Desert

5/18/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

My garden thrives in ignominy.

Yesterday I posted some frugal things I’ve done lately at the Non-Consumer Advocate website. I do this because the kinds of people who try to be frugal are often (not always) people who I wish would come over here and read my website, too. I don’t write too much about frugal strategies but I write lot about values. We are in the same Venn diagram, right?

GNTL - Walk, Mounds, Spirit

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

5/17/2023 

The local TV weather folks talked about ‘a pneumonia front’ for two days. I’d never heard the term before but we all know temps can change fast, right? It’s more generally called life on planet earth. Keep a jacket handy if you can.

M is for Various Mom Memories

If you haven’t read yesterday’s comments, go back to read some wonderful memories of peoples’ aunts and “aunts”.

My morning's been packed. Before it was even 8:00 we played facetime dollhouse with our 6-year-old grandkid. She laughed extremely hard at the wedding of wee Kristoff (the Frozen story) to a new clothespin doll from Goodwill, because the groomsman kept standing on the cupcake table. No one could get the groomsman to straighten out so a collie had to run over and bite him.

Tag Cloud

9/11 17 minutes 500 Words A-Z AARPtaxes AAUW abortion Acadia accident Accountable Advent aging Alaska anniversary antibiotics antlers apples appointments Arrows art Ashland August Augustine aunts baby Badlands balance Baldwin Barbara Barkskins Beauty Becky Becoming Esther Berry birthday bistro BLM Blue BookReport books boy scout Bread BrokenDays BuyAngry Cabeza de Vaca Cahokia calendars Canada canoe cat romance cats cello Chicago China Choosing Christmas cilantro Cinnabuns circus clouds Clowns clutter Colonialism comet ComfortZone CommonSense community consumerism Cops Corvid-19 Courage Covid-19 Crazy creditreport creosote CrimeShows danger DarkRiver death Debate December DecisionFatigue decluttering democracy dentist depression Destination Today Detroit Didion disasterprep dogs dollhouse Dreams Duty Easter eBay Echoes Eclipse election EmilyDickinson eschatology Esquipulas exit polls eyes Fable FairTrade family farmer Fata Morgana ferns firealarm Fitness Five Flatbread Flexible flu Fort de Chartres frame Franc FrancGarcia friends frugal FrugalHacks Frugality frustration Ft.Ticonderoga fungi fusion Galena Gannets Garden GarfieldParkConservatory Gaspe genius geode GeorgeFloyd gerrymandering ghosts gifts girls GNTL gorgons goulash GovernorThompsonStatePark Graduation grandkids granola groceries Guatemala gum guns Hair happiness HaveYouEver? hawks healthcare Healthinsurance hearings heart heaven HelleKBerry heroes hike History home HomeRepair Honduras Hope humor hurricane Ice Cream idiosyncrasy igloos impeachment Innkeeper Instincts integrity InternetPrivacy Interview InviteMe2Speak James Baldwin Jan 6 Janus jewelry JoyceAndrews Judy JulianofNorwich Jump justice Karen kites ladder Lady Lamb LangstonHuges LaphamPeak laundry LeeLeeMcKnight lemming Len Light Lincoln Little Women LockedOut Loki loneliness LouisArmstrong Love Ludington Macaw macho Manitoulin MargaretFuller Maria Hamilton Marquette marriage Marsden Hartley masks Mayan MayaWorks meme Memories men Middlemarch MilesWallyDiego MindfulChickens Mistakes MLK moon Mother MothersDay mounds mouser movies museums must-haves Mustapha Nancy Drew New Mexico New York City Nomadland nope observation OBUUC Ocotillo OnaJudge ordinary OscarRomero osprey Outside oximeter Parade mayhem PastorBettyRendon Paul Hessert PDQ Penny persimmon photos Pi Pies pineapples poetry Preaching privacy Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez sculpture Sermon ServantsoftheQuest sewing Shepherd Shontay ShortStory shoulder sick sickness Slower snow Social Security SofritoBandito solstice South Dakota SpaceShuttle spirituality spring square feet staining stars stele Stereotypes stories StoryStarts stream monitoring stress Survival swim taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria words
Ad Promotion