Friday October 7, 1983: Plato to the Rescue

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Friday October 7, 1983:

Plato to the Rescue

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Well, the big day has arrived friends. Just a word of note to my valued readers here. This is a rather serious assessment of this incident at this time and I know that this type of evaluation will not be received by all people in the same way; some will accept it as an explanation and some will not. So, please bear with me as I try to offer an interpretation for this event in the following manner. It is now 26 years later and Friday October 7, 1983 is remembered once again. The most devastating day of my life occurred over a quarter of a century ago. And, why is it so important to my life you might enquire? Because it was simply a devastating and shocking event. And, it was not expected to happen. Sort of like 9/11 was not supposed to happen, but it did. And, people were hurt and their lives would never be the same. And, they both happened on bright sunny days too. One affected the psyche of a nation and the other the soul of Carl Baydala. Never again would things be the same.

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So, why does Carl Baydala dwell on October 7, 1983 year after year after year? A question worth pursuing and also worth answering and that is what I would like to do. Before I offer my opinion on the matter you might want to have a look at last year's ' celebration ' of this event found here:

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Friday October 7, 1983: The Silver Anniversary

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Once you read this post and the original true story of Friday October 7, 1983 ( Friday October 7, 1983 ) you will come to realize the nature of my personality which you will need to know about - for an appreciation of things, that is. I don't think anyone, upon completion of reading this post, will fail to understand my basic nature. It would be impossible not to.

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I am basically reacting to a totally unexpected event. Yes, that is the essence of the thing. I was not in the least bit anticipating to be terminated. I was shocked. But, the trauma of the event is long-lasting, I feel, because of the losses that occurred on that day. Losses you say? How does one think about losses for 26 years without getting tired of the whole thing? And, just what is the nature of these ' losses '? And, if they are just losses, shouldn't time cure these kinds of things just like it cures any wounded lover and sets him right again? One would think so and nature is pretty efficient at these kinds of things. Why, even a severely polluted ocean will overcome the difficulties and make things clean again. But, why not Carl Baydala? Why is he not cured and cleansed of his problems?. Is nature being negligent at her task or have I presented her with such an overwhelming problem that she is simply flabbergasted by the whole thing? Is that it? If nature cannot cure Carl Baydala then there must be something really important going on here, so one would think.

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On the morning of Friday October 7, 1983 Carl Baydala was a man in love with a young girl. This girl was not reciprocally in love with him. But, that matters not when you are dealing with issues of love. The philosophers will back me up on that one. It is the idea of love that we are interested in. I am thinking primarily of the philosopher Plato here and his ideas concerning love. You will need to read Plato's dialogues Symposium and Phaedrus to get some of his insights on the nature of love. Sure, there is physical love and lust and that kind of thing, but there is much more to love than just that. Real love is something that lives beyond these human desires. It might be rooted in desire let us be plain about that. But, Plato tells us that there is some ideal kind of love that we discover if only we are to think about it, that is if we are able to imagine some kind of ideal love or thing of beauty - it is some kind of transcending thing. It does exists, but we have to move beyond the physical necessities of our lives to get there.

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There is a real difference between physical love and the ideal love that Plato is talking about. The main difference if I can summarize it for you, is that the better kind of love, that being the ideal kind, focuses on the needs of the beloved and not the one pursuing his beloved. So, motive enters the picture here. Once man moves beyond his lustful desires and considers his beloved in a different light then he is on his way to success and a more fruitful and healthy relationship. In a sense, man needs to let go of his animal-like acquisitive behavior and view his beloved in a totally different way.

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In a nutshell friends that is why this event is lasting so long. I believe it is some kind of philosophical struggle to some degree. There is a great loss here as well. Having found beauty that may never be achieved again causes one to sit up and take notice and reflect deeply on the nature and scope of the loss. The human animal will do that I think. Now, in the process of the loss one tends to dwell and to speculate and to contemplate past events as they relate to the present. That means of course that the event has never really died. My past is the same thing as my present. It is an ongoing thing that has no ending. It has no ending for the reasons that I am offering above.

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I think it might also be about pure loss. But, it is a different kind of loss than a death loss though. I don't think this is too difficult to understand at all. A dead person is not going to come back to life. But, a real living person who is just somewhere else is not dead and can never be dead. They never died, they just pretended to die, by their physical departure, I mean. Now, if the human animal has a great affection for a living person I think you should realize the severity of the situation. No loss can occur under these conditions - it will not be accepted. We are not dealing with a physical loss, only an emotional one. If you are a follower of Plato of course, you will be aware of the negative considerations to which I just alluded. But, I am trying to move beyond that negativity and provide you with some other things to consider. Since man is a thinking, emotional creature and is able to appreciate beauty when he sees it, a beauty perhaps unmatched in his lifetime, then this beauty is something that he might not be willing to so easily give up. I don't think that is a totally negative exercise, although Plato might not agree. So, I think that is what is going on here. We have a living breathing beauty on our hands. And, since Carl Baydala knows real beauty when he sees and experiences it he might not want to let go of such a thing for a very long time. Maybe 26 years is the same thing as forever, who knows.

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If you are a faithful follower of my blog and this story then you will realize that there are other considerations to this story besides that of love. But, for today, love and the meaning of love was my focus. The incident does allow one to explore these things concerning love, because love was, and is, a predominant feature of this incident. Perhaps on another day and in another year we could explore the other details of this event as well. But, I do not want to cloud or destroy the beauty of the event and what it has to offer, for me, at least. I know that I have found my silver lining so to speak. So, I am thankful that my case has some positive features to it and I am willing to share those with you now.

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I hope you guys are enjoying this anniversary as much as I am and if you have never read Plato's dialogues well, now might be just the right time to do it. Have a nice day.

The photograph at the top of the page

......the picture of the restaurant as it looks today, 26 years later. Photo taken in the morning of Thursday September 24, 2009 before noon with a Blackberry pager. Notice the face lift that the store has undergone. It is a pretty store don't you think?

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Good morning friends,
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today is Thursday October 7, 2010 and I just thought I would pop in and
pay my respects to this most solemn day in my history. Thank you for sharing this event with me on this day and at this time.

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