Respect

It may be disconcerting to find yourself forced into a childlike relation to reality in the form of an authority figure, even in the last furlough that last age of man a la Jaques famous dissertation in As You Like It. You thought you were beyond having to knock on the door of some 25-year-old assistant to the big muckamuck, the latest Wizard creating thunderous sound effects and shooting up smoke behind a scrim. Your prognostications about crossing the finish line of success fall into the gutter in the face of some intake nurse in a emergency room. Literally all illusions of control fall to shreds when you're humbled by the demands of the gastrointestinal or urologic systems which are the great levelers. Basic needs reduce just about everyone to the role of petitioner. Perhaps the expectation that you have arrived and are somehow beyond being put in such a position is the source of the disappointment. “All I’m asking for is a little respect when you get home” sings Aretha Franklin. But maybe that’s too much to ask from those who hold the power to give or take entree or love. 

read "The Seven Ages of One Man" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and listen to "Respect"by Aretha Franklin