Episode 208 - Five O'Clock World

Now we think that reality, the "real world", is what happens "between nine and five", that is, what happens at work, in the office, at school, in career, and so forth. And a lot of people want to tell us that's true. "But not The Vogues. They were from Pittsburgh and they understood about shifts and hourly pay. Yet they understand more than that! "For the fact is, 'as you lay dying' (Faulkner), you won't give your "nine-to-five" life a single second thought. Not one single second thought! You'll forget it all, in the absolute blink of an eye. That's just a fact of old age and death -- the fact of our mortality. "What you won't forget, however, is "the long haired girl who waits for you/To ease your troubled mind". Or the one who did. Hopefully, it's the same person. As The Vogues observe: in light of her, ''Nothing else matters at all.' "This cast explores the 'Five O'Clock World' in terms of romantic love. Not sororal or fraternal love. Not even paternal and maternal love. But romantic love. For that's the core of loving for men and women. That is "where the action is" (Freddy Cannon). "Moreover, it is the core of the Gospel. If you want to understand what Christ did, for you, look at your experience of romantic love. For better or worse, look at your experience of romantic love. Like my friend Lloyd Fonvielle, who put one brilliant experience that way underneath the microscope just a few weeks before he died. And what he came up with!: Golly, there's no doubting it. The Gospel is the historic, true and universal metaphor, allegory and analogy of that which romantic love instantiates to the core within human experience. If you want to understand the love of God, observe the 'Love-O'-(Men and) Women' (Kipling). "For many of my listeners, this will be a message from your future. You may not hear it -- you may rebuff it -- and I understand why. But hey, one day...