Morality Tales: Tea with Olga and Father on the Banco

[Jeff]

In my reading of TTOTC (as a book, regardless of its relationship to a puzzle), the chapters often form consecutive pairs that are thematically related and contain connected images.  This is particularly evident in the latter part of the book, which is a series of morality tales.  After Fenn explicitly conveys his "answers" in My War for Me, a series of paired chapters addresses these messages.  As it relates to these two chapters, the message conveyed is that positively affecting other people’s lives is our most important purpose: "we are all here only for the pleasure of others…[to] enrich those with whom [we] interact with each day and cause them to be better for my having passed their view."  In this part of the book Fenn is a materially successful art dealer, a point that is important to understanding the intent behind these two chapters.

Fenn’s relationship with his dying neighbor Olga is described in Tea with Olga. Fenn needs Olga’s house for an expansion of his gallery, but she declines. She is diagnosed with cancer and asks him to scatter her ashes in exchange for her house.

At the beginning of Tea with Olga Fenn makes the statement: "somewhere along the way I learned that my cost could also show a profit." This phrase sets the stage for the theme and monetary imagery of the chapter.  At his first request to buy the property, Olga refuses; at this meeting, they drink "red tea." In accounting, red signifies a net loss or "cost." At the second meeting, they strike a deal and drink "black tea." In accounting, black signifies net income or "profit." After scattering her ashes, Fenn imagines Olga now drinking "green tea" with her father. While not standard in accounting, the use of this color could signify marked profitability as in "making green," referring to dollars. This "profit" was the "serene sense of warmth and satisfaction" he felt from completing her wish.

Fenn was going to scatter her ashes on the top of Taos Mountain, per Olga’s request. Upon arriving at the mountain, he finds that it is covered with snow and appears "cold and foreboding." He muses that "the bitterness of cold remains long after sweetness of a sentimental moment" and decides to scatter the ashes elsewhere, where it is more alive--here we are confronted with an alternative connotation of green.  The image of dropping ashes from a plane raises an additional contrast beyond Fenn's material and spiritual (if you will) success--that is, between Fenn as Air Force pilot and Fenn as one who has "finally found [his] way."  Rather than dropping bombs, a symbol of death, for purposes he now views as "faint," he is dropping ashes, another symbol of death and quite literal in Olga's case, for what he views as a more noble purpose--to "enrich" the life of someone with whom he has interacted.

In the very brief chapter Father on the Banco, Fenn tells us about his father’s mortgage. The title’s "banco," while directly referring to the bench in Fenn's office, is a play on words for bank in the context of the "cost" and "profit" theme of these chapters (on the topic of chapter names, one has to wonder if Olga is an intentional anagram for goal--what Fenn regards as the grand purpose of life). The chapter somewhat mirrors the story found in Tea with Olga. His father’s "home cost"--the equivalent of Olga's "red tea"--took twenty years to pay off--the equivalent of Olga's "black tea"--and the mortgage papers were not just burned but "ceremonially" burned--cremated, as Olga--as a "religious experience"--the imagined "green tea" and "serene sense of warmth and satisfaction." Fenn reflects that it is sad that it took his father so long to pay off the mortgage because, as an educator, he was a positive influence on so many people’s lives. The irony and, to Fenn, embarrassment is that his material success was not remotely commensurate to his father's "spiritual" (if you will) success.

Well, that's is my two cents.  I'm relatively new to this thing, so remember to take this with a grain of salt.

[goldwatch]

This reminds me of the last illustration in 'The Thrill Of The Chase', with all those tree stumps and the axe man standing with one foot on a stump, looking at the moon.
Those tree stumps remind me of the paper used to make many books. We've heard Forrest talk about how each item excavated from the past represents a book of it's own.
I'm not sure if that axe man is supposed to be Forrest, or his father. But the tree stumps, to me, represent the books of the lives that his father affected, which is told in the story the illustration is attached to.

[CJ]

Feb 23, 2019 13:03:22 GMT -5 goldwatch said:

This reminds me of the last illustration in 'The Thrill Of The Chase', with all those tree stumps and the axe man standing with one foot on a stump, looking at the moon.
Those tree stumps remind me of the paper used to make many books. We've heard Forrest talk about how each item excavated from the past represents a book of it's own.
I'm not sure if that axe man is supposed to be Forrest, or his father. But the tree stumps, to me, represent the books of the lives that his father affected, which is told in the story the illustration is attached to.

I believe that it's been speculated (and I agree) that the woodsman picture was to be tied to the "Treasures Galore" story from FF's blog, which didn't make it into the book. It makes sense if you read it and consider the picture. www.oldsantafetradingco.com/blog/treasures-galore

That said, this is the first time that I've seen anyone post, publicly, what I believe is the best explanation of the stories and Tea with Olga in particular - and the tie in to Father on the Banco.

[Jeff]

Goldwatch and CJ, great thoughts!  And thank you for your kind words CJ.

My take on the illustration in Epilogue is related to your thoughts, although I am less aware of Fenn's comments and writings beyond TTOTC (at this point in my relative newness to this whole thing).  I'll point out that the statement (also in the Epilogue) that we should "do a better job of protecting our planet" supports your idea.

The illustration in this chapter shows a lumberjack, presumably Fenn, in a field of tree stumps looking up at a starry night sky.  A bird is nested in the crescent moon.   The image resembles the illustration of a young Fenn in a graveyard in Surviving Myself; however, in this illustration there is a substitution of gravestones for tree stumps and a young Fenn sitting and thinking with an older Fenn apparently now at the end of his task.  As this is the end of the memoir, as Fenn talks about death as "the place just ahead," and as Fenn’s given name Forrest is a homophone of forest, perhaps the stumps represents Forrest--the forest--arriving at his end.  It fits with the Bildungsroman nature of the memoir--as a youth, he experienced these things (more than once, as I will attempt to show in future posts) that culminated in some mystical experiences relayed in My War for Me.   This allowed him years later--unspecified, but my guess being after his cancer ordeal--to come to terms with the meaning of these experiences and conclude his "moral education."  (Am I really writing this?  Have I listened to my droll?  Eye roll.)  At his advanced age he knows the "answers" and is at "peace with it all"--hence the dove in the moon, a oft used symbol of peace.

What a wonderful "little" book Mr. Fenn has dropped on us, wouldn't you agree?

[goldwatch]

Feb 26, 2019 12:09:19 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Goldwatch and CJ, great thoughts!  And thank you for your kind words CJ.

My take on the illustration in Epilogue is related to your thoughts, although I am less aware of Fenn's comments and writings beyond TTOTC (at this point in my relative newness to this whole thing).  I'll point out that the statement (also in the Epilogue) that we should "do a better job of protecting our planet" supports your idea.

The illustration in this chapter shows a lumberjack, presumably Fenn, in a field of tree stumps looking up at a starry night sky.  A bird is nested in the crescent moon.   The image resembles the illustration of a young Fenn in a graveyard in Surviving Myself; however, in this illustration there is a substitution of gravestones for tree stumps and a young Fenn sitting and thinking with an older Fenn apparently now at the end of his task.  As this is the end of the memoir, as Fenn talks about death as "the place just ahead," and as Fenn’s given name Forrest is a homophone of forest, perhaps the stumps represents Forrest--the forest--arriving at his end.  It fits with the Bildungsroman nature of the memoir--as a youth, he experienced these things (more than once, as I will attempt to show in future posts) that culminated in some mystical experiences relayed in My War for Me.   This allowed him years later--unspecified, but my guess being after his cancer ordeal--to come to terms with the meaning of these experiences and conclude his "moral education."  (Am I really writing this?  Have I listened to my droll?  Eye roll.)  At his advanced age he knows the "answers" and is at "peace with it all"--hence the dove in the moon, a oft used symbol of peace.

What a wonderful "little" book Mr. Fenn has dropped on us, wouldn't you agree?

"(Am I really writing this? Have I listened to my droll? Eye roll.)"

You see? His father's works, through Fenn himself, it's working. How many of us have used this quest to further ourselves, to start or restart, or otherwise continue, the building of our own experience?

 The substitution of grave stones for tree stumps is an important aspect of our personal life quest.
The trees have rings built upon the summers and winters of their lives, and in a real sense so do we. Each and every one of us.

[goldwatch]

By the way, the image on page 41 of TTOTC ("The Thrill Of The Chase," for new folks) has young Forrest sitting on a tombstone in a cemetery. And among them is a cross. But important to note is that it's a "leaning cross." The symbolism of a leaning cross is that God's work is done for this person's life in this world. Symbolically similar to tree rings.

This reminds me of the stone grave marker Forrest tripped over during his visit to his "magical" waterfalls before he came home from Vietnam. It had fallen face down in the grass. And it requested that a sinner be forgiven.
And that reminds me of the story where Forrest straightened up a tombstone somewhere. I forget where that story is, so I can't point it out.