Ross and Lunch at the Caretakers... Also other things...

Ross was not judgmental... he loved everyone... He tolerated and celebrated the idiosyncrasies of everyone...
He did not follow theological dogmas... He will attend services of all denominations... He was not sectarian and opened his heart to new loves and his mind to new possibilities... He had an inquiring mind and his intellect absorbed much... He was always learning and investigating and reading... He did not have a TV too... till he retired... 
In retirement he found new was to relax and bought a TV... mostly for the noise of it... He loved to be squeezed by the noise of the living... and the TV simulated the living... but could not replace the live experience of theater and concert halls... He never became a couch potato... even when he acquired the TV... He intuitively comprehended that eternity has no limits... He had no limits too... and he grasped that when you subtract eternity from eternity what is left is still eternity...
He was open to all and rejected no one... He was not pretentious and shared what he had with everyone... He shared his loaf with the caretakers of the school and admonished the teachers who pretended to be an elite class and the caretakers below them... He could not tolerate castes in society and in the school...
I have heard his boisterous laugh from the lunch room of the caretakers... and envied his childish simplicity... and appreciated the invitation to share bread with him and the caretakers... Most of the time I was busy with headaches from the department... to be honest, I had most difficulty with my math teachers... They new to add and subtract... maybe even multiply and divide... but most of them had not learned math, like Ross had intuitively internalized the mathematics with numbers... I was occupied with student and parental requirements too... So at lunch I joined them when I had the chance... Those were my favourite hours... Listening to Ross and the babble of the caretakers... Those were happy hours...

  

Ross always led people to smile... He created fun and merriment at caretakers' lunches...

The lunchroom was much more jovial because of him... and of course because of the caretakers too...

Tony, the mechanical caretaker, was aloof and withdrawn... But, Reno, was very loud and talkative... He talked nonsense most of the time and used gutter idioms at times too... Ross did not mind... and giggled with the swearing and dirty words... But, Tony was composed and gave a look to Reno... and his body language expressed his displeasure...
The head caretaker was the arbiter... He did not like Reno's talkative nature... He indeed talked to much and I at times had to cut him short by excusing myself and blaming my workload...
When I was down at the caretakers' room at lunch... I was happy... and relaxed... It was an down-to-earth group... and Ross was the essential cement among all... 
At times we had some wine (just under the table) ... That was a sin that Ross loved... and appreciated... That was a sin that I enjoyed... and that was a sin that the caretakers were proud of... 
The lunch at the caretakers was lively and happy and worth participating... even the swearing was educational... The students knew where I had disappeared and smiled for my grown up childishness... They smiled, but did not ask any questions...
Once in a while, just to reciprocate the hospitality of the caretakers Ross and I took turns to order lunch from nearby Italian takeouts... and the caretakers appreciated that too... and Ross and I appreciated the caretakers cooking... 

    Wonderfully delicious happy hours... and shiny school...

The cooking was delicious... and the room was alive... 
Ross loved it... and I enjoyed every moments of it...
The teachers were rowdy... pretentious... an "I know-it-all" bunch of vain group... In contrast, the caretakers were down to earth an human... They were very simple people... Ross thought me to embrace them all and love their company... 
It was fun... till it lasted...

***

...And Also

My Student-friend writes...
The last point I wanted to ask/say is why didn't Mr. Oakes want a car despite loving cars? I love cars, turn at just the sound of nice car and it always puts a smile on my face. Some people laugh at that or when I say I want my next car to be a Porsche. What people don't understand is that cars are works of art, taking 4 years from idea to conception and hundreds of engineers to make. 
What makes paintings more artful than cars? What makes Picasso's Version O worth $179 million and 

Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)

yet the most expensive car produced today is only a couple million? These million dollar cars are masterpieces, cornerstones of technology in today's day and age. 
F....................

  Floyd Mayweather: The champ with his new car

Despite raking in some $300 million this year, making him far and away the world's highest-paid athlete, Floyd Mayweather went the Cars.com route a few months back, when he parted ways with his ultra-rare Ferrari for a shade under $4 million to pave the way for an upgrade. While he intended on turning his profits into a couple of puppies, he instead settled for a Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, which sounds like a fancy espresso machine but is actually one of – if not the – rarest car on the planet.

    Floyd Mayweather  with his orange Mercedes and red Ferrari and his gloves...

Just like a painting or a song, cars take blood, sweat and tears to make, except a lot more than any song or painting ever made. I won't even start on the technological knowledge and schooling required to be able to make a car. There is no such thing as natural talent like with a painter or singer. As the saying goes, "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard". 

                         The kiss                                                                 The Thinker

Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, bronze, 1884-95 (Musée Rodin, Paris)

Dear friend, The engineer is talking within when you are revolting about the  not-so-much-appreciated car... But I think you are comparing apples and hammers... They do not have much in common...       It is unfortunate but the economy based on the market decides the price of goods and services... Your revolt is about human appreciation and societal norms and mores... I am not sure why you want to compare the arts and the cars... I always was apprehensive when students were taken to car shows as a class project and they missed the school for a day... I also was irritated when a teacher hijacked the class for an art show or a play... I was thinking that those activities should be done on the weekends... when students have not much to do other than mischief... It confuses me when you compare Picasso to the engineer of a car... While the paintings and the statues ignite the imagination of people and lead them to a better and higher conception of life and its meaning (if it has any...!), the assembly of steel and plastic bring us to the material reality of life... One is spiritual and the other is based on greed and material... I do not think Picasso painted to be rich... I do not think Mozart composed to accumulate material good...  When I listen to Messiah during Christmas... It elevates me and transcends me to a new spiritual world... every time I listen to it, I encounter a new world... a new eternity... a not-yet-discovered space... a new universe... But the honking of the cars invades my space and disturbs my tranquility and I find their speed dangerous... I am not sure if you should compare them... I love your logic... I know that you can solve all the AP Calculus problems... I am sure you will find a way of solving your apples and oranges... I am sure of that... and I love and respect you for that... But meanwhile, you should stop comparing things and concepts... Maybe their beauty lies indeed in their uniqueness...