Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson - Essay Example

Dialogue: Dickinson and Twain While walking in one of the older wings of the original terminal at Londons Heathrow Airport, I heard two loud voices coming from the chapel. One was a smoky, booming timbre; the other was a retiring, quavering voice that seemed like it could slip in and out of a crystalline soprano. When I stuck my head in I was shocked to see the white, shaggy mane of Mark Twain in his older days, next to a slight woman clad in all black, with the same severe ponytail that sat on Norman Bates mothers shoulders long after she had passed on to the next plane. Once I heard some of their conversation, though, I knew that it could only be Emily Dickinson. The following relates what I heard of their conversation. ED: So where exactly is it that we are right now? MT: I do not know, my dear. (Exhaling a huge cloud of cigar smoke) You know, I really need to quit smoking these things. Theyre going to be the death of me. ED: (Coughing) It feels like they might end up being the death of me too. (Looking around) It looks like this is a small sort of church. MT: Well, thats my luck. Finally emerge from that afterlife from a few minutes and they act like they own the place, the churches too. Not sure how were going to get back up there. It is up from here, isnt it? ED: (Laughing gently) It would be nice to get out there in some fresh air. After all the time we septn trapped inside those small boxes, this is a major change. But...how did we get here? MT: Shoot me. I walked out of a crowd at the end of a reading and made it all the way to the hotel. Then I ate an early dinner, then to bed. Usually I like to go back out, for a long walk, but last night I just went to bed. When I woke up, I was sitting in this ghastly lounge. A few minutes later, you appeared next to me. ED: Well, you know how it is. “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me” and all that. Most people think that I had a fairly boring life, spending so much time in my own house. But my there is so much to see, even when one never leaves the house. Theres so much that fills the mind. MT: I dont know about that. Ive never stopped moving since I was a young boy, riding on ships up and down the Mississippi. Inside the house is nothing but chores and busywork and other things that Id much rather let someone else do. Give me the chance to ride with the rivers breeze in my face. ED: But dont you find that its just much harder out there in the world? When you leave the house? MT: Why on earth would you say that? The world is where adventure finds us. Its where we find ourselves. Without the world out there, there would be nothing. Also, its where we find other people. I wouldnt have done any of the things Ive done in my life without other people. ED: Oh, I dont know about that. I really think that other people turn out to be a disappointment. We have high hopes for them, but then they turn out to be much less than what wed wanted. There is so much potential within each person, but then we end up wasting our own potential – and those we want to believe in end up draining that potential from us as well. Far better, I think, to retreat to a life of the mind. That life is what has brought me the most inspiration as a poet. MT: Well, of course people are disappointing. Thats what people do. However, we also end up disappointing ourselves and other people. Were all flawed in the world – but it is the flaws that end up being the most interesting parts at times. That, and the way people overcome those flaws. ED: But it doesnt have to be that way. Thats not how we were created. Not at all. MT: Created? Created​? Youre not going to get into some religious fiddle-faddle, are you? (Looking around) Well, after all, we do happen to be in a house of worship. A fairly dismal one at that, though. ED: (Getting up and walking around, putting her hands on a small cross on the altar) What is this smooth substance that makes up this cross? It is cooler and smoother than wood, but not as cold as metal. It feels like it would bend easily, but it does not. MT: Let me feel it. (Touches the cross) Ive never felt anything like it before. But it could be that the cross has changed over the centuries. It feels cheap, cheaper than wood or metal. If there is “one notable thing about our Christianity, [it is that it is] bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing and predatory.” By saving money on the making of crosses, pastors could line their pockets with even more of the offering plates. ED: Is that all that you think religion is? A scam to take money from the faithful? Dont you think theres more behind it? MT: “Man is a religious animal. Man is the only religious animal...he has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brothers path to happiness and heaven.” Any impulse that we had towards faith is only a trick – it is just really a desire to control and manage others, to make them just as miserable as we are, and to make them obey what we want them to do. ED: Dont you think that God exists? Dont you think that there is a being out there that is inspiring all of this faith, even if people have twisted the way that the faith is expressed? MT: “If there is a God, he is a malign thug.” Otherwise, Id rather there not be a God at all. Id rather it just be that people thought there was a God and decided to make others miserable in their own search for Him. If God does exist, He should have shut down those who misused His name in so many ways. ED: Well, “I know that he exists.” It is true that modern believers make things too easy on themselves and too hard on others. It is also true that God is all too often silent, leaving things for us to piece together and figure out. But that does not mean that he does not exist. MT: Well, if he really is out there, my dear, why is he leaving us so alone? Why does he leave us in the clutches of the ministers, the Sunday school teachers, the benevolence drive leaders, and the God-Almighty temperance movement? Why doesnt he do more to counteract the terrors that strike people in their lives on this planet? Why does he leave us to each other? ED: I dont know the answer to this. His presence in our lives is quite rare. He does not show up for months, years, even decades at a time. But then youll see the briefest whisper of his presence and youll have what you need to move on for another day. MT: My dear, if that happened, Id actually give up these cigars (Laughing). ED: (Laughing with him). Well, should we find a way out of here? (At this point, the TSA shows up, with handheld metal detectors brandished. This seems like the time to step away...) Read More