In the Time of your Life...

     It seemed like yesterday was the start of this millennium. Now, it is 2019 and we are in

the 20thyear of this century. Time indeed moves faster the older we get.
     The start of a new year is the turning of the page. We are starting fresh, full of aspirations of what we will do and what we will do better. We delineate the traits and habits we want to drop and other, more desirable traits and habits, we aspire to finally ensconce them into our lifestyles and personalities. We all want to self-actualize, be more authentic, and become mentally and physically healthy.
     In contemplating all I have and want to do; the list is no different than it was last year at this time. Heck, it is not much different than it was last year at this time. It is not that much different than it was any of the New Year’s Days for the past several years. I have made progress on some and I have backslid on others. Some resolutions have stuck, others were mere memories after a day or two.
     What is it I truly want? What is it that most of us really want? Health, happiness, general well-being, and some degree of prosperity is what most of the seasonal greetings hope for.
     Today, on Facebook, Margaret Dabakian Ehramjian posted a quote from William Saroyan. This is not the Saroyan quote most Armenians think of. This one is the prelude from his 1939 play, The Time of Your Life:

In the time of your life, live - so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed... In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

     It is perfect for today, actually for any day. It is perfect for the time of anyone’s life.
     The play was a hit from the day it opened. It was the first play to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Saroyan was an instant success and a toast of the town. Armenians were proud of him. His success was the general success of our people who just twenty-four years earlier had suffered so in our ancestral homelands. This son of immigrants from Bitlis was born in Fresno in 1908 and passed away in 1981.
     Needless to say, I did an internet search on the play and found out that the quote on Facebook, the one I was familiar with, the one I posted above is a Hallmark Card reduction, a very well-written and elegant Hallmark Card, of what he actually wrote. His most famous Armenian quote can be found in various plaques and other ornamentations adorning Armenian homes around the world. But the version we all have in our homes is, again, a Hallmark Card excerpt of the original. Read the full quotation at the end of Çidem İnç - Thoughts and Dichotomies. Every version of this quote hanging on the walls of Armenian homes leave out the “sons of bitches” part. The parts that are left out, in my humble opinion, are what made Saroyan the brilliant writer. Here is the full version of Saroyans preface to The Time of Your Life.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches.

Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed.

Place in matter and in flesh the least of values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away.

Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.

Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.

Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand.

Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

     The full version is indeed more real. It is gritty. It is blunt in parts. “…but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.” Wow. It reflects what the Armenians went through in 1915 – 1920. It reflects the depths of the Great Depression in the US when the play was written. It is still hopeful and a guide to aspire to but there is an underlying tone that the vast majority of us will never achieve this. That is no reason, however, not to endeavor and strive towards that ideal. It is what the time of our lives is about – if we so choose.
      I find the full version much more motivating.
     A happy, healthy, and prosperous 2019 to one and all.

Note: I have nothing against Hallmark Cards. In fact, I buy them frequently. Lastly, no Hallmark Cards were killed or injured in the writing of this bloggy bit.