View source for Karma Memories

{{Infobox
|bodystyle = width:30em;
|headerstyle = background:var(--infobox-header-color);
|labelstyle = background:var(--infobox-header-color); width:35%;
|header1 = Series
|header3 = Original Broadcast Date
|header5 = Cast
|header7 = Format
|label10  = Preceded by: 
|label11 = Followed by: 
|data8 = [[:Category:Karma Style|Karma Style]], [[:Category:Serious Monologue|Serious Monologue]], 58 minutes
|data4  = October 22, [[:Category:2000|2000]]
|below = [https://www.joefrank.com/?s={{#invoke:URLEncode|encode|{{PAGENAME}}}} Purchase]
|belowstyle= border-top: 1px solid #333;padding-top:5px;
|data6  = [[Debi Mae West]], [[Larry Block]], [[Kristine McKenna]], [[David Rapkin]], [[Jack Kornfield]], Joe Frank
|data10 = [[Waiting For Karma]]
|data11 = [[Dreamland: A Compilation]]
|data2  = [[The Other Side (Series)|The Other Side]]
|
}}

''While my father was slowly dying, my mother had an affair with another, younger man, Freddy.''

'''Karma Memories''' is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series [[The Other Side (Series)|The Other Side]]. It was originally broadcast on October 22, [[:Category:2000|2000]].

== Synopsis ==
Joe says that while his father<ref>Meyer Langerman</ref> was slowly
dying his mother had an affair with Freddy.<ref>Theodore Frank, Joe's
eventual stepfather</ref><ref>Joe says he was a younger man; he was
born in 1906, which makes him 19 years younger than Mr Langerman, 4
years older than she.</ref> Joe says he was stationed in South
Carolina near the end of the war.<ref>he was in the Army, a private in
the signal corps.</ref><ref>Mr Langerman died 1943 October 8, not the end
of the war.</ref> She took a train to visit him; she made love with
another soldier along the way.  Joe says she told him about 10 years
ago, when she was 80.<ref>This show was first aired in 2000, making
1990 10 years before, when Joe's mother was 80.</ref>

1:20: Joe says his mother and Freddy married a year after Joe's father
died.<ref>They married 1945 April 28, 1 year, 8 months, 20 days after
Mr Langerman died.</ref> Joe's uncle Ben took Freddy into Langerman
Shoe, was unhappy with his poor performance at work.  Freddy preferred
golf, bridge, a comfortable life.

3:10: Joe's mother received war reparations.  Freddy took some,
which made her mad.  She lost respect for him, felt contempt for him,
wanted to kick him out.

5:50: Joe's mother was a fine pianist, gave recitals after dinner.
Freddy complimented her effusively, was generally servile to her.  Joe
resented his mother's bad treatment of him.<ref>Joe tells some of this
story, but in the third person, and about 'his stepfather', instead of
Freddy, about the protagonist, in the original version of [[Another Country (Part 3)]].</ref>

11:40: Debi calls Joe to complain that he didn't use her story in his
last show.  She's worried that Joe may be mad at her.  Debi had a
dream that she killed Joe, buried him in a school bus.  They chaff
each other.

17:50: Joe tells of visiting his parents in Palm Beach; they're in
their 70s.<ref>She was born in 1910, he in 1906, so they're both in
their 70s 1980-1986.</ref> They're sweaty but don't bathe.  Joe
complains about their smell.  They're unsympathetic.

21:10: Joe calls Larry.  Larry quotes Beckett, 'You think you're
simply resting, the better to act when the time comes or for no reason
and you soon find yourself powerless to ever do anything
again',<ref>from [[Wikipedia:The Unnamable (novel)|''The Unnamable'']]</ref> then V. S. Naipaul's [[Wikipedia:A Bend in the River|<i>A Bend in
the River</i>]]: 'The world is what it is.  Men who are nothing, who allow
themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.'  Larry says he's
allowed himself to become nothing.  Joe disagrees.  Then Larry quotes
Matthew Arnold, 'What are the situations from the representation of
which, though accurate no poetical enjoyment can be derived?  They are
those in which the suffering finds no vent in action, in which a
continuous state of mental distress is prolonged, unrelieved by
incident, hope, or resistance, in which there is everything to be
endured, nothing to be done.'<ref>[https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/12628 <i>Theories of Literature and Criticism</i>]</ref>

24:10: Joe sees Freddy drinking straight from the bottle.  Joe's
embarrassed.  Freddy sings 'My defenses are down'<ref>from <i>Annie
get your gun</i>, Irving Berlin, 1946</ref>

25:00: Kristine McKenna says that everyone has wreckage in her/his
life, that bullying harms the bully as well as the victim that we 
should avoid propagating the damage we suffer upon others.

28:00: A few years before he died,<ref>1995, in Palm Beach</ref>
Freddy told Joe that he blamed him for an injury he suffered when he
was hit by a cab, because he was on his way to buy tickets to the
Army-Navy game for him and Joe.  Joe thought that Freddy was going to
tell him that he loved him.

29:30: Larry wonders if he'll have an obituary in the <i>New York
Times</i><ref>He didn't.</ref> Joe says being remembered is a more
significant memorial.

31:20: David Rapkin eulogizes Larry: he tells a story about Larry telling a waitress that he's
about to be deported, needs to take a shower; then  he talks about Larry's generosity,
with money, his car, his wife; he gets weepy.

34:00: Joe tells of going to temple on high holy days.  Joe enjoys the
service.  He forgot to take off his skullcap after services once, was
embarrassed, worries that Christians blame Jews for killing Christ.
He remembers how badly Christians treated Jews.<ref>Joe tells this
story, but in the third person, about the protagonist, in 
[[Another Country (Part 1)]].</ref>

37:40: Joe says that when his mother was depressed, it put a pall over
the whole house.  Joe would hide in his bedroom when his mother played
piano in the afternoon.<ref>Joe tells this story, but in the third
person and about 'his father' instead of Freddy, about the
protagonist, in '[[Another Country (Part 1)]].</ref>

39:40: Freddy always tried to be cheerful, despite her mistreatment of
her.<ref name=AC3_freddy>Joe tells this story, but in the third person and
about 'his stepfather' instead of Freddy, about the protagonist, in
the original version of [[Another Country (Part 3)]].</ref>

42:00: Larry says it's easy to identify why one is behaving in an
unproductive way; Joe disagrees.

42:50: Larry describes the only good therapist he ever had: the first
session he built a fire in her fireplace.

48:00: Joe tells how Freddy played with the children at large family
gatherings.  The children loved him, took advantage of his good nature
to hurt him.  This made Joe mad.<ref name=AC3_freddy />

49:10: Joe's mother cried when she held him as a child.  Joe thought
tears odd.<ref name=AC3>Joe tells this story, but in the third person,
about the protagonist, in the original version of [[Another Country (Part 3)]].</ref>

50:00: Joe talks about the coolness of the earth, ants underneath
rocks, flowers, when he was a child.<ref name=AC3 />

50:50: Joe's mother would walk through the woods alone in the fall.<ref name=AC3 />

51:00: Joe repeats, in summary, many incidents in the episode so far.

51:50: Jack Kornfield leads a meditation on forgiveness.

54:30: Joe recalls his one good memory of his mother, Freddy, and him,
when he was 7 or 8.  Joe, his mother, her mother,<ref>Sabine Passweg,
before immigration Scheindel Sabina Passweg, born in Sambor, Poland in
1886, mother of Ben Zion, Batschewa, and Friederike, naturalized in
1941, died 1960.  She sailed from Lisbon in 1941.  Her husband,
Solomon, had died in 1936</ref> and their dog Skippy would walk down
the road to greet Freddy returning from work.

56:30: They'd gather in Ben's a few doors down, sing songs
in French and German and dance.  Joe's mother played the accordion,
cousin Jules the mandolin<ref>I find no evidence of Jules.  Ben and
his wife had 3 daughters, no sons.  Sigmund and Sonia Spiegel had 1
son, Michael.</ref>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:95%; overflow:auto;">
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

*Joe talks about his mother's life.  She had an affair with Freddy as his father lay dying.  Sex with a soldier on a train traveling to be with Freddy.  After his father's death, they marry and Freddy joins the family business.  She loses respect for Freddy.  They get money through German reparations.  Freddy tries to steal some of it and is discovered.  He lives as a subject in her house, in a state of cold war.  Mother's piano recitals.  Young Joe is angry on Freddy's behalf, fights with his mother.  She confides that she resents Freddy, feels her life is empty.  Joe is embarrassed as she flirts with other men in public. 
*[[Debi Mae West]] - She was angry Joe used Larry's story instead of hers.  She regrets sending out email with the phrase "starring Debi Mae West".  A dream of burying Joe and two other people in a bus underground, getting half a box of chocolates. 
*Joe - He visits his parents, is offended by their body odor after a sweaty gold tournament.  They fight, he apologizes.
*[[Larry Block]] - Quotes from Beckett, VS Naipal, Matthew Arnold.  Naipal doesn't know Larry.  Is Larry nothing?
*Joe - Freddy drinks liquor from the bottle. 
*Kristine McKenna - Getting dealt cards in life.  All lives have wreckage.  Are we victims or authors of the play of our lives?  Bullying as an agreement.  The dead continue to live within us.  Free will.
*Joe - In a tender moment, Freddy confides in Joe that he blames Joe for causing a car accident. 
*Larry and Joe - will he have an obituary?  Faking one's death to see the reaction. 
*[[David Rapkin]] - a eulogy for Larry.
*Joe - being embarrassed to discover he's forgotten to remove his skull cap.  The history of Jewish persecution.  Imagining himself in the holocaust.  Post-war Jewish camouflage.  His mother's depression.
*Larry and Joe - Self knowledge and change.  A therapist asks Larry to build a fire.
*Joe - Freddy plays horse with kids, is abused.  Tears as a strange concept.  His father's death.  Meditations on earth. 
*[[Jack Kornfield]] - forgiveness meditation.
*Joe - A happy memory: walking to meet Freddy on the way home as a child.  An evening of music on the family lawn.  
</div></div>
== Music ==
* {{Rearrange (Cinematic Orchestra)}} [Intro]
* {{Bristol Switch (Fink)}} [17:32]
* {{Doris Dub (Tosca)}} [33:42]

== Footnotes ==

[[Category:Karma_Style]]
[[Category:Serious_Monologue]]
[[Category:Debi Mae West]]
[[Category:Larry Block]]
[[Category:David Rapkin]]
[[Category:Jack Kornfield]]
[[Category:Kristine McKenna]]
[[Category:2000]]
[[Category:Show]]
[[Category:The Other Side]]	[[Category:Show_by_date|20001022]]	{{Airdate|airdate=2000-10-22}}
{{Series|series=The Other Side}}{{Cast|cast=[[Debi Mae West]], [[Larry Block]], [[Kristine McKenna]], [[David Rapkin]], [[Jack Kornfield]], Joe Frank}}