My brother Lou weighs in on "Another Me"

Today I received an e-mail from my older brother Lou about my post on Frank Loesser (see "Another Me"). It seems this tendency toward sentimentality is a trait not entirely unknown to the men in our family as we age. Great. So in addition to arthritic knees, GERD and thinning hair, I've got spontaneous blubbering to worry about as I get older. Somebody just shoot me.

Anyway, here's what my bro' has to say:

Hey Joe,

I've really enjoyed reading your blog. I particularly liked your post on the Frank Loesser retrospective. You started it with the observation that "sometimes you just don't know where it comes from." Well I think I do. It seems that as the men in our family age, they become more and more sentimental. Mom noticed it about Dad; and Grampa [our father's father, who lived to be 92] exhibited the trait to such an extent that he was known to break into tears at the slighest provocation. Such behavior, Mom noted wryly, earned him the nickname "Onions" in his later years.

Your use of the word "sophisticated" is also telling. If we remember that the root of the word is from the Greek "sophia," meaning "wisdom." it provides a little clue, because that root also appears in "sophist" and "sophomoric." Regarding "sophist," Plato had a lifelong battle with the Sophist philosophy, which he regarded as nothing more than an empty show of knowledge with no claim to wisdom. It seems that sometimes that's just what sophistication is also. In the sublime simplicity, perhaps even sentimentality, of "The Inchworm," I'm guessing Loesser understood that also.

So, it would appear that the path to wisdom requires a passage through sophistication, and a return to a sophisticated sentimentality. See also John Irving's essay, "In Defense of Sentimentality." It goes a long way toward explaining what we both find so attractive about Alistair Sim's portrayal of Scrooge, and for me particularly, why so many "sophisticated" disparagers of Frank Capra's work miss the point entirley. Pass me the"Capracorn" any day. And don't forget a healthy side of "onions."

Louie