The Pa Quincy Mode

Pa Quincy is a figment of my imagination. Pa has various writing moods which cause him to express himself in various ways from time to time. He has happy moods, sad moods, peaceful moods, angry moods and many other moods too numerous to list. I group all of his writing moods together and call them the Moods of Pa Quincy.

One day Pa Quincy was in a philosophical writing mood and he wrote an essay asserting that the sky was blue. Critics rose up stating that the sky is not necessarily blue. Their reasoning was that the sky is called blue only because blue was the color given to the color of the sky. This does beg the question, “Which came first, the color or the sky?” The Critics say that had the color, “blue,” been named, “riboff,” then we would refer to “riboff skies.” Songs would have been written about the, “deep riboff sea.” The word we call “blue” might not even be in existence. We would have to be content with saying, “the wind blew.” But that’s another misconception for another time.

Pa wrote again while in this same mood that, “up was up and down was down”. Huge numbers of the earth’s population fell in line with this apparent truth. But then came the intellectual Critics. They told us that Up was not always up. Up used to be down. However, Up made a deal with Down and Down agreed that Up could always be up. Neither Up nor Down wanted to be sideways. So what now is has not always been the way it is now. Rather, according to the learned Critics, manipulation and deceit by the ups and downs of the world cause us to waiver in our understanding.

Why did Down agree to let Up always be up? Up had to agree that whatever goes up must come down. Down, on the other hand, would never have to feel compelled to go up. Also it was agreed that Sideways always would be home free with no bickering among the Critics of Higher Learning.

One day while in a serene writing mood, Pa Quincy wrote that, “All peace-loving people should live in peace thus enabling them to live in the peace they love.” Critics of the highest stature stated, “No, no, no.” They insisted that it is ridiculous to insinuate that you can have peace by living in peace, that what we really ought to do in order to live in peace is to live in war. Kill people. Burn homes. Cause havoc and chaos among all the nations of the earth. Only by living in war can we live in peace.

The various writing moods of Pa Quincy do not stop here. The Critics have debunked Pa Quincy’s writings that cold is cold and hot is hot. They have discredited his writings of belief versus doubt. They have lain to rest Pa Quincy’s writings of existence and non-existence.

The Critics say that even though Pa Quincy says things, that really he is saying something else and that we should not be misled by what we think he says. They say that we should look into the Moods of Pa Quincy to determine if there are secret messages. In fact they say that we should compile these mood writings and publish them in a book that could be called, “The Pa Quincy Mode.”

But then I guess all of this sounds too ridiculous so I apologize for even taking up your time with such foolishness. I am thankful that realistically, mankind is too wise to get caught up in such fairy tales.

So I will expunge such ridiculous thought from my imagination.

Winston Hamby –
Whamby2@houston.rr.com