trust me

When relaxing in Luckenbach with good friends, it's understandable that one's brain might misfire during intellectual recall.  In Luckenbach, anything referred to as intellectual is generally met with a blank stare and a head quickly turned back to the guitar pickers.

Between duels of the melodion and washtub bass players, what can only be described as a cowboy poet took the floor.  He entertained the crowd with stories of the West, work, and life experience set to verse.  I quipped to a nearby friend that since the crowd so adored his poetic stylings, I should take the stage and recite a few lines of Donne.  It was a fateful note of sarcasm.  My friend did not know the name.  I assured her she did and threw out a familiar line: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  The shadows of confusion were washed from her face by the sweeping light of understanding, and she confirmed recognition.  In that instant, recognition burned in my mind like a thousand suns and I cringed before its brilliance.  My dear reader will feel a measure of this humiliation, for you surely understand my error.  John Donne never wrote that line.

In fact, the line is "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."  It's a beautiful poem discussing the interconnectedness of life, how one man's actions can affect another man.  This verse opens and serves as inspiration for Hemingway's classic For Whom the Bell Tolls, an amazing work with the Spanish Civil War as a backdrop.

I immediately attempted a correction, but believe it fell on deaf ears.  It sounds similar anyway, right?  Except it's not right, and I'm troubled by it.  Admittedly, I am troubled less by perpetuating the corruption of Donne's line than I am about how the error reflects on others' perception of my intelligence.  What if my friend, or another within earshot, has opportunity someday to recite this line to another?  If this future audience recognizes the error and scoffs or in turn recites it again, I am responsible.  I am reminded of a Biblical exhortation: "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

This reminds me of another incident, similar in nature.  While dining with a group of friends, someone was describing a situation from high school and looking for a particular word to portray an individual's vituperative nature.  I offered 'mollify', which was in a race to the vocal chords with 'vilify', the more appropriate term.  I knew I was wrong then, but not quite so immediately as with this more recent incident, and I never made a correction.  The great fear that at times awakens me in the middle of the night is that this individual continues to use the term 'mollify' in a completely inappropriate manner.

*sigh*