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Monologue Mania Day #447 They Can't All Be Gems by Janet S. Tiger May 5, 2015 They Can't All Be Gems
(for Book of Teas)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights reserved tigerteam1@gmail.com
(T is sitting, working on a knitting, she stops to laugh)
Oh, how I hated that expression! And it's so interesting how I understood WHY to hate it - from a woman with 15 children, no less. A woman who had not even finished high school - you may have guessed she left to get married! And this same woman had 10 children by the time she was 30 years old! 15 by the age of 35, including two sets of twins! You talk about busy!
(She is quieter) Of course, by age 40, she only had 12, as 3 of them didn't make it past the first few years......one of the great sadnesses of life.....the death of a child.....(Snaps back) . She was in her sixties, but still looked young, it was amazin'....I didn't realize how little education she had until I mentioned that she must've had a pretty ugly picture of herself in a closet....you know like that story about Dorian Gray? That's when I heard about how she had to leave school at 15, how she and her husband to be had gotten a little frisky and she had her first baby......eight pounds.....not much of surprise for a seven month term in those days......
But she told me all about the others who had made it......she could barely remember all the names!....and she had the whole range -a teacher, a pharmacist, a businessman or two, some mothers, and, as she put it, a few were road apples!
I wasn't sure how to answer that, so I just said the saying I'd heard so many times around the tea table when my momma's friends were playin' cards,, 'well, they can't all be gems!'
And that's when she surprised me, she said, 'Who the hell would want all gems? That is one of the dumbest expressions I ever heard. (As the other woman) You can't eat gems, you need to have some eggs and ham, and you can't build a house with gems, you need lumber and nails.....and what would the pohlice have to do if everyone followed the law? They'd be unemployed, and we'd have to give them welfare! All gems! How silly is that!
I did point out to her you could sell the gems and buy lumber, and she laughed. (as woman) No you can't! Only God makes a tree! You can't take the gems and trade them for the years to make a forest! How can you go and look at a runnin' stream in the summer, with the sun all warm, and the trees hanging over, perfect to jump in from, and you just can't look at that and say....oh, I would rather have a pearl right now?'
And I suddenly realized what she was talkin' about. It is often the sad truth that what we so desperately want .......makes us blind to what we have in abundance.
So I went home and took a good look at the people in my life - and I realized that each was a gem in their own right - and sometimes wrong! - and that complaining about a catfish not bein' a chicken was never gonna get me a chicken, or be happy about a delicious fish dinner. I suppose, they may not all be gems, but each one....is valuable.
(She stops knitting and gets up)
Which reminds me.....isn't it time for dinner?
(She turns to leave, stops, looks back)
Did I stop complainin' about everyone? Of course not! Who do you think I am, Mother Teresa?
(She laughs, and exits .....for a nice fish dinner)
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For my Scripteaser friend Michael, who gave me the name - and inspiration! - for this monologue.
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Janet S. Tiger
858-736-6315
JanetSTigerMonologueMania.blogspot.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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