{"id":20407,"date":"2021-03-10T20:49:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T01:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/?p=20407"},"modified":"2021-03-11T12:28:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T17:28:22","slug":"disobedience-by-a-a-milne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/2021\/03\/10\/disobedience-by-a-a-milne\/","title":{"rendered":"Disobedience, by A.A. Milne"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

James James
\r\nMorrison Morrison
\r\nWeatherby George Dupree
\r\nTook great
\r\nCare of his Mother
\r\nThough he was only three.
\r\nJames James
\r\nSaid to his Mother,
\r\n\u201cMother,\u201d he said, said he;
\r\n\u201cYou must never go down to the end of the town, if\r\nyou don't go down with me.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

Your Humble Blogger was reminded today of A. A. Milne\u2019s marvelous poem Disobedience<\/a>. The wonderful rhythms just floated into my head, as they sometimes do. It was one of my favorites as a child\u2014I actually liked the poetry more than the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, when I was small. The story of James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree and his disobedient mother always struck me as hilarious, in addition to the simple joy of chanting the name.\r\n

James James
\r\nMorrison's Mother
\r\nPut on a golden gown,
\r\nJames James
\r\nMorrison's Mother
\r\nDrove to the end of the town.
\r\nJames James
\r\nMorrison's Mother
\r\nSaid to herself, said she:
\r\n\u201cI can get right down to the end of the town and be\r\nback in time for tea.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

Much later in my life\u2014a generation later, not to put too fine a point on it\u2014I developed a real sympathy for Mrs. Dupree. There are times, you know, when a parent just wants to go to the end of the town without her or his beloved offspring. I mean, I love my children, as I am sure Mrs. Dupree loved James James, but my Lord when you have a child you have a child every day<\/i>.\r\n

\r\nKing John
\r\nPut up a notice,
\r\n\u201cLOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
\r\nJAMES JAMES
\r\nMORRISON'S MOTHER
\r\nSEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
\r\nLAST SEEN
\r\nWANDERING VAGUELY
\r\nQUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
\r\nSHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF
\r\nTHE TOWN - FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

Wandering vaguely, quite of one\u2019s own accord, sounds lovely, doesn\u2019t it? Irresponsible and fancy-free, looking into the windows of the shops that are right at the end of the town. Maybe sitting in a little caf\u00e9 and eating a pastry and sipping a nice cup of tea.\r\n

I miss eating a pastry and drinking tea in a little caf\u00e9.\r\n\r\n

James James
\r\nMorrison Morrison
\r\n(Commonly known as Jim)
\r\nTold his
\r\nOther relations
\r\nNot to go blaming him.
\r\nJames James
\r\nSaid to his Mother,
\r\n\u201cMother,\u201d he said, said he,
\r\n\u201cYou must never go down to the end of the town without consulting me.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

I never did go down to the end of the town without consulting my progeny, of course. I fantasized about disobedience, but I didn\u2019t really<\/i> want to be irresponsible.\r\n

I haven\u2019t sat in a caf\u00e9 for a year, either.\r\n\r\n

James James
\r\nMorrison's Mother
\r\nHasn't been heard of since.
\r\nKing John
\r\nSaid he was sorry,
\r\nSo did the Queen and Prince.
\r\nKing John
\r\n(Somebody told me)
\r\nSaid to a man he knew:
\r\n\u201cIf people go down to the end of the town, well, what\r\ncan anyone do?\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

I still feel a lot of sympathy for Jim\u2019s Mom. She shouldn\u2019t have gone, obviously, but I can\u2019t seem to judge her harshly. And yet, for the first time ever, I find myself sympathizing with King John in this poem. If people go down to the end of the town\u2014not wearing masks and maintaining distance in indoor places like caf\u00e9s, not waiting just another few weeks for a vaccination for crying out loud\u2014well, what can anyone do?\r\n

(Now then, very softly)
\r\nJ. J.
\r\nM. M.
\r\nW. G. du P.
\r\nTook great
\r\nC\/o his M*****
\r\nThough he was only 3.
\r\nJ. J.
\r\nSaid to his M*****
\r\n\u201cM*****,\u201d he said, said he:
\r\n\u201cYou-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-if-\r\nyou-don't-go-down-with ME!\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,<\/I>
-Vardibidian.\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Which Your Humble Blogger has yet another different angle on an old favorite.","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-litchrachoor","category-navel-gazing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20407"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20413,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20407\/revisions\/20413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}