“–Open the balcony-window. / The hour of illusions draws near. … / The afternoon has gone to sleep / –and the bells dream.”–Antonio Machado y Ruiz from the collection World Poetry published by the Quality Paperback Book Club.
I’ve often said during my show that I have one of the best views in the city. I may not be that high up, but I’m surrounded on two sides by huge sound-proofed windows that afford me an idea of what is going on in the world while I do this radio show. My daughter called me just the other night during one of the most recent thunderstorms. I happened to be looking south toward the lake when the sky lit up with a huge lightning bolt. It probably hit the CN Tower because the flash was intense. She wondered why I went silent for a moment. And then I tried to explain what I had just seen, and found the words difficult to come by.
I recently featured a story about two men in a hospital room. One was by a window and other due to illness needed to lie flat on his back at all times. The one at the window felt sorry for his room-mate and took to describing everything he could see outside the window. He described people in the park, the majestic trees, the clouds in a blue sky and so many other wonderful things that the bedridden patient began to become envious. The man by the window suddenly passes away. The one next to him asks the nurse if he can be placed by the window. He painfully tries to elevate himself to be able to see all the wonderful sights the other man had explained. When he finally looked out through the window he saw that it faced a blank wall. The nurse also told him the man who described all the wonders was actually blind… He knew the man by the window was dying and did nothing to call the nurse. He wanted the view to himself…
There was a great Alfred Htchcock film from 1954 called Rear Window that starred Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. He has broken his leg and is propped up in a chair looking out the windows in his apartment. He is a newspaper photographer and, to pass the time, he watches those who live nearby. He believes he sees a crime committed, and sets out to try to solve it on his own with the help of his girlfriend. It was based on a story by Cornell Woolrich. Of course, to make things more interesting, we really don’t know if what he has witnessed is really a murder, or whether his over-active imagination is playing games with him. Nevertheless, he runs the risk of being targeted by the person he is convinced has done the deed. I mention this because the windows on our world can present us with nature at its most beautiful and, occasionally, the reality of a world gone slightly mad.
There are times when we yearn to open the blinds and let the sun shine in. Other times, we’re thankful to be able to draw the curtains closed to shut the world out.
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Don Jackson
