View source for He Hesitated

{{Infobox
|bodystyle = width:30em;
|headerstyle = background:#7fa9d0;
|labelstyle = background:#7fa9d0;
|header1 = Series
|header3 = Original Broadcast Date
|header5 = Cast
|header7 = Format
|label10  = Preceded by: 
|label11 = Followed by: 
|data8 = [[:Category:Absurd Monologue|Absurd Monologue]], [[:Category:Serious Monologue|Serious Monologue]], 56 minutes
|data4  = [[:Category:1987|1987]]
|below = [https://www.joefrank.com/?s={{#invoke:URLEncode|encode|{{PAGENAME}}}} Purchase on CD]&nbsp;or&nbsp; [https://www.joefrank.com/streaming/shows/?jfsearch={{#invoke:URLEncode|encode|{{PAGENAME}}}} Stream]
|belowstyle= border-top: 1px solid #333;padding-top:5px;|data6  = Joe Frank
|data10 = [[The Policemen's Ball]]
|data11 = [[At The Border]]
|data2  = [[Work In Progress]]
|
}}
''There are paper clips, rubber bands, cellophane wrappers, and pennies on my living room carpet.''

'''He Hesitated''' is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series [[Work In Progress]]. It was originally broadcast in [[:Category:1987|1987]].

== Synopsis ==
Joe describes the litter on the carpet, the desk, the couch,
the mess in his bathroom, the kitchen: he's a poor housekeeper.  He
points out that, after cleaning up, it gets dirty again.<ref>He says he
has an incinerator, but these were outlawed before Joe moved to LA.</ref>
His appliances malfunction; he's disintegrating himself - no matter
how well he could keep himself, he'll die.

10:20: Joe rolls dice, announces the results.

11:10: She (Joe's mother) saw sheep being slaughtered when she was a
girl, remembers stories of the brutalities of Russian soldiers who
invaded during WW1, when she was 3-4.<ref>She tells the same story
in [[Too Close To Home]]</ref>

12:10: She takes a fall in her closet.

12:50: A local man was found guilty of killing his wife, who had
Alzheimer's.  Joe's mother thought he would get off because it was a
mercy killing; Joe disagreed.

13:30: Her neighbor Dave had a stroke, can no longer speak.  His wife
Rose called an old friend in Denver, caught up on mutual friends, all
suffering from disabilities.

15:00: We're made of atoms.

15:20: Joe and his mother drive to the new shopping mall; she
complains about all the new development.

16:00: She turned down a request to run the local chapter of [[Wikipedia:World ORT|ORT]], a Jewish
work-training agency.  She was unhappy running other organizations.
She takes lots of drugs for her anxiety, considered suicide.

19:20: There are 3 books above her bed.  Joe takes down Chaim Potok's
[[Wikipedia:In the Beginning (novel)|''In The Beginning'']], reads the words, 'He hesitated.' (a 2-word
sentence) from page 172. Then he turns to
page 331, reads, 'He closed the door quietly.' She doesn't remember anything
about the book.

20:30: When she's too tired to get out of bed Joe imagines a system to
automate her feeding.

21:50: When she has attacks of pain, she puts nitro (nitroglycerin?)
under her tongue.  She remembers Mr Paoli (sp?) who stayed in Germany:
his mother committed suicide instead of going to the camps.  An
ambulance comes for someone in the development.  She used to work in
an emergency room.  She gets down on herself, calls herself a bitch.
She attributes it to survivor's guilt, then her hypochondria to her
father's amputated leg.<ref>He died in 1936.</ref>

24:00: Joe saves some bugs from the pool; Joe has found his true
vocation, spends the day rescuing drowning insects.  Later he tries to
save ducklings from a badger, spends the night with them. "I think you made a cruel world, God - you arranged things pretty nastily, didn't you." Then he
remembers how he enjoyed eating duck.

26:40: She likes to practice chipping onto the green.  Joe adjures
himself to make his visits positive.

28:50: Joe rolls dice, announces the results.

29:00: Rain, car starting up and driving off, dog barking.

30:30: Joe asks whether he is his body or in his body, then more
questions - sounds of a party in the background.

32:40: Joe tells the story of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Shrinking_Man ''The Incredible Shrinking Man''].

44:40: Joe imagines a party at which people interpret the movie; Joe
puts on voices to imitate them.

48:00: Joe asks if it isn't true that we're all striving to find peace
and fulfillment, but this is an impossible goal.  We do because we
were told stories like this.  TV shows rehearse such stories.<ref>originally aired in [[Laughing Back - A Movie For Radio]]
</ref>

53:20: [[Wikipedia:All My Tomorrows (song)|'All My Tomorrows']] (Frank Sinatra)

<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">


A list of clutter in Joe's house.  The futility of cleaning. Entropy. Joe exchanges witty dialog with his mother, describes her life.  Saving bugs in a pool. Saving baby ducks from a badger.  A synopsis of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Shrinking_Man ''The Incredible Shrinking Man'']. Intellectual discussion of the film at a party.  Problem solving and linear progression taught in childhood - nihilism and soap operas.
</div></div>

== Music == 
{{Little Dream In Turquoise (Erik Wøllo)}} [Intro]
{{Mimosa (Michael Brook)}} [10:12]
{{Sanfona (Egberto Gismonti)}} [30:46]
{{Foreign Affairs (Eno / Moebius / Roedelius)}} [36:20]
{{All My Tomorrows (Frank Sinatra)}} [55:03]

== Shared material ==
* [[Laughing Back - A Movie For Radio]]
* [[Too Close To Home]]

== Additional credits ==
The original broadcast credits state: "Technical production by Tom Strother."

== Footnotes ==

[[Category:Absurd_Monologue]]
[[Category:Serious_Monologue]]
[[Category:1987]]
[[Category:Work In Progress]]
[[Category:Unknown_air_date]]
[[Category:Show]]
[[Category:Show_by_date|19870008]]	{{Airdate|airdate=1987}}
{{Series|series=Work In Progress}}{{Cast|cast=Joe Frank}}