Trent and His Mother, Claressa Schmitt

 

On the way to the beach Clare suddenly turned down the street toward the Ferris Wheel and said, “Lets ride.” Midway into the first revolution of the wheel, as the metal structure clanked and the cages rocked back and forth, she said, “I want to talk to you about inspiration.  This is a good place to start. Have you heard the story of the construction of the first great wheel?”

Puzzled by such a question Trent replied, “I don’t think so.”
Clare responded, “The first great wheel, two hundred and fifty feet high, was the original Ferris wheel, and Mr. Ferris conceived it while sitting at a dining table at a banquet. He recorded his design and plan of operation on a table napkin. The wheel was built and operated exactly as he had conceived it in that memorable instant.
The great wheel, a wonderful example of inspiration, was a star feature at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 held in Chicago. At the banquet, Mr. Ferris learned of the need for an attraction at the upcoming exposition. In a flash he brought his skills and experience to bear on that need, and the Ferris wheel was born.”

Showing some of the discomfort he was feeling, Trent snapped, “So, what does this have to do with me, Mother?”

“Trent, it’s just that you seem to me to be woefully lacking in inspiration. I strongly believe that inspiration is necessary for success and I want to help you appreciate that. The basic ingredients for inspiration,” Clare began, in a more pedantic manner than she intended, “are the motivation to act, the recognition of a need, and a commitment to find an approach that makes a contribution of value. What is commonly thought of as inspiration—the eureka! moment—is the outcome of these ingredients in action.

“Motivation can be of a positive nature and lead directly to a contribution of value, as in the case of Mr. Ferris, or it can be of a negative nature and produce a drive to avoid or overcome some obstacle or pain. The life and work of Alan Rabinowitz is an example of negative motivation that led to a positive outcome: the establishment of the world’s only preserve for jaguars, in Belize, Central America. As a child, Alan stuttered so badly and interacted so haltingly with people that everyday tasks were painful for him. While he had great difficulty communicating with people, he could talk with his animal pets without stuttering. He promised those animals that if he could find his voice he would speak for animals that also had no voice.

“On one occasion when his father took him to the Brooklyn Zoo, he saw a jaguar pacing back and forth in its cage. As the jaguar, old but still strong, looked at Alan with empty eyes, Alan realized that he, too, was strong like the jaguar, but that he, too, was imprisoned like the jaguar. He whispered a promise to the jaguar that he would find a place someday where both of them could be free, and after years of effort the preserve in Belize became a reality.

“Trent, in your case, I saw motivation, particularly after your army stint was up, but what disturbs me is an apparent lack of inspiration, and I want to talk about that.”

Before she could continue, however, the operator motioned for them to exit the Ferris wheel cage. She had already bribed him to allow three revolutions instead of the normal one, and he was eager to have them depart and silence the complaints from people in line waiting for their turn to ride. As they exited the cage, she said, “We’ll continue on the beach.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they were settling into the cabana, a woman and a man were relaxing in reclined beach chairs about a hundred feet away. The man was absorbed in a book, but the woman was feeding seagulls. She would take an item of food from a bag she held in her right hand and hold it high above her head with her left hand. Small whitish gulls would fly over and snatch the morsel from her fingers.

Trent noticed a large brown-and-gray-spotted gull, however, advancing slowly on the ground toward the woman, and he tried to interest his mother in the developing scene, but she only stared intently at the waves breaking on the beach. As the large gull got closer, the woman reached down and gave it a morsel of food. But the gull, not satisfied with that arrangement, hopped onto the woman’s lap and extracted an item of food directly from the bag she was holding. This startled the woman so badly that she fell backward out of the chair onto the sand. Her companion gave her a pained look, but continued reading his book. All the nearby gulls scrambled away squawking.

Clare’s reverie was broken by the clamor of the gulls and the laughter of neighboring sunbathers. She reoriented her chair toward Trent, looked into his eyes for first time in several minutes and returned to the topic she had begun as they rode the Ferris Wheel.

“Trent, I know that you led a life of dissipation while you were stationed in France after you joined the army—instead, I might add, of going to graduate school, as I had hoped. I’ve never told you, but I had to pull many strings to get you a safe assignment at a base whose only function was to act as backup landing site for the Space Shuttle in case of an abort over the Atlantic Ocean, which, as you know, never happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I know that you enjoyed the women in France, because when you got home I went through your luggage and found, in a secret compartment of your carry-on bag, an eight-by-ten-inch picture of you in your army uniform, with correctly tilted cap, standing between two totally naked women. You looked almost as if you were at attention, unaware of the photographer, but the women looked as though they very much enjoyed mugging for the camera.

“You also don’t know how much effort it took for me and my family to get you out of that French jail in which you spent a miserable month, or how many political favors we had to call in to get you an early discharge—an honorable discharge, no less.”

Over the years, Trent had learned that his mother was not to be interrupted when she was in the midst of an impassioned declaration of any sort. Had he tried, he knew that she would have simply increased the volume of her speech and kept talking. Instead of responding to the unpleasant events she recounted, he merely pushed one heel forward and then the other, creating ankle-deep parallel furrows in the sand beneath his beach chair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You should know,” she said with a slight sigh, “that I’ve been told that your research is pedestrian and unoriginal. Instead of developing an original research program for yourself, you seem to be content to run a routine contract screening laboratory for second-tier pharmaceutical companies, with little hope of building an international reputation as a cutting-edge scientist.”

Clare pushed back in her beach chair, straightening her back and raising her head a few inches above the level of Trent’s eyes. “I don’t want to discuss your research further at this time,” she said, “but I do want to discuss your behavior. Ever since you were five years old I’ve been unsuccessful in having a meaningful conversation with you. You have always been courteous, and even caring, as evidenced by the kindness you have shown me and by the love you have always given to stray animals and people. The hapless creatures you brought into our house were obviously in need of help or guidance and you provided that. After the age of ten, you have never forgotten my birthday and are always eager to celebrate important events with our family, but you keep your views and thoughts to yourself.

“I know that you have had, and are having, affairs with numerous women. I have long admired your athletic prowess, but even that is linked to your womanizing. When I asked you, as a fifteen-year-old boy, why on earth you would take up kickboxing, you simply smiled and said, ‘If I’m gonna be a lover, I gotta be a fighter.’

“I will not lecture you on morality because, having been single for more than thirty years, I’ve had my share of liaisons, some of which involved married men. But I have always been discreet and have never put myself in a position to do great harm. Your actions, on the other hand, run the risk of penalizing a whole university. I know about your affair with Virginia Schein, but I’m not sure you know that her husband had planned to donate five hundred million dollars to Haney University. Did you know that?” Clare asked sharply.

“No, I didn’t,” Trent said. “She never mentioned it.”

“As I said,” Clare continued, “he plans to make a gift, but he may not do so if he finds out about your relationship with his wife. Gerry Sanford told me about this situation, and to protect you and the university, I later offered to make up half of the amount in case Schein backs out, using funds from the foundations established by my family. I had earlier convinced your uncle Albert to support a grant of that magnitude. As chairperson of the foundations he has the authority to do that. You may not know it, but I’m next in line to be chairperson.

“Reluctantly, Trent, I’m protecting you again,” Clare stated, without pausing for a response from Trent. “I sense that the affair with Virginia means more to you than the flings you have had over the years. I must say that she is a very engaging person. I can see why you might be attracted to her, but for your own good, you need to concentrate on your research and find inspiration for something that will be of real value to the world and to your academic career.

“Now, let’s have lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying the water and the beach,” she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, mother and son ate breakfast in silence except for polite references to the view and the beautiful weather. After breakfast, however, Clare began to speak in a somber tone.

“Trent, I have cleaned up your messes and protected you all your life. I won’t do it anymore. It’s time now for you to grow up and pursue an adult course of action for the remainder of your life. It’s time to become inspired with something of value and make a contribution to society. You must develop a research program that will win respect from your university colleagues and from the scientific community as a whole, and you have to do that right away. You simply must become motivated to make a valuable contribution. Sadly, though, it seems that nothing positive or noble beckons to give you that motivation. In the absence of a positive force, reluctantly, a negative force must be applied.

“Trent, if you continue your aimless approach and are judged by the administration to have made no progress by one year from today, I will have to take action. It gives me great pain to say this, but if you have made no progress within a year, I will no longer protect your position at the university. Rather, I will suggest that you be dismissed as an unpromising, untenured faculty member, and further, I will reduce your inheritance to a stipend so low that, with no job, you will have to trade your five-star hotel lifestyle for a five-dollar-a-night flophouse existence.

“That’s all I have to say. I suggest that you think over what I have said very carefully. I’m leaving now,” she said, her face losing its stoic demeanor and betraying an expression of grief, “but I’ll have the car return for you tomorrow morning.”

Trent’s face froze into an expression of total shock as his mother left the rooftop. He sat heavily in his chair and was motionless for several minutes, during which time his shock turned to anger. When the anger turned to agitated motivation he returned to his room, put on his running shoes and ran as fast as he could down the street, past the Ferris wheel, across the boardwalk, and onto the beach.

 
Buy PurrBuy_Purr,_the_novel.htmlBuy_Purr,_the_novel.htmlshapeimage_5_link_0

Copyright © F. Wyman Morgan 2011