Tony Rollo Articles and Essays
Entertaining and Enlightening Articles / Creative and Original Essays
Sometimes a fleeting thought and story comes to mind. It can be from an experience, a dream or from my muse. And it must be written down and shared somehow. So that is what this section is all about. A collection of short stories, ideas and essays that I have no idea what to do with except share them with you.
My muse is indeed quite prolific … However …
Of course, I don’t believe in a muse.
This reminds me of a wonderful experience in meeting someone …
… if you will allow me to digress –
I once had the opportunity to share a plane flight on the way to Los Angeles with Steve Allen. This blew my mind since he was on my short list of people I wanted to meet ever since seeing his show “Meeting Of Minds” when I was still a teenager in the 1970s.
Steve Allen wrote around 6000 songs. Most known is probably “This Could Be The Start Of Something Big” … I asked how someone could write so many songs who was primarily a television personality and writer of plays and scripts at the same time?
He said there are two classic / historical theories on inspiration …
1st – there is a spirit called a “muse” who is invisible and sits on the shoulder of the artist and whispers in their ear to what should be created …
But that explanation is medieval and we know that is not the case.
2nd – That all songs come from God.
And Steve explained to me that if this was true, then God has written a lot of bad songs !
I laughed for at least five minutes …
There was a lot of wisdom in what he said. I realized at that moment Steve Allen was one of the wisest men I had ever met. He was advanced in age at the time – around 1998 – yet he was as clear and sharp as anyone.
I then threw in that our modern word “inspiration” is traced back to the greek language. It literally means “in spirit” … the greek is “theopneustos” which men “God breathed” …
But Steve got a bit of a grimace on his face to that and looked away for a moment … I got the impression that he must have had a bad experience with religious idiots in his past – so I changed the subject.
I also noticed that he had a small, round bandaid on the back of one of his hands – but of course it would be rude to ask what it was. I was pretty sure what it was.
It wasn’t long after that I heard he had been in a minor car accident which at first he seemed completely unhurt – but later passed on from an unseen internal injury.
I don’t mention that to be morbid – just that when we get an opportunity, or can make an opportunity – cherish those who you are able to walk a while together in our lives.
So with that memory, it would be best to share these quips with you in this way rather than leave them on my pocket recorder or on a scrap of paper in a box somewhere.
Enjoy – CLICK HERE to see the collection
Category: Tony Rollo Articles and Essays