The Writings of Hall Tennis

Edgar Hall Tennis, artist and longtime resident died New Years Day at home after a brief illness from cancer of the pancreas. He was one week shy of his 82nd birthday. A native of Hampton, Va., he attended William and Mary College, the University of Texas and graduated from Rollins College.

He served in the United States Marine Corps in the battles for Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. He was in an advance liaison group which landed in Japan in advance of that nation’s surrender. He was the executive director of the Florida Audubon Society for several years and retired as assistant county manager of Dade County credited with solving many of the Greater Miami area’s most difficult social challenges during the 80’s including the management of inner city tensions and the impacts of both the Cuban and Haitian immigrant populations.

He is survived by sons: Samuel of Ft. Walton Beach, Steven of Miami; and Joseph of Charlotte, N.C. all from his first wife Ann K. Tennis; grand children: Amanda, Michael, Pamela, Matthew, Rachel, Ava, Erin and Jasmine; great-granddaughter Rheannon, brothers Melvin and William, second former wife Francis Strychaz, third former wife Susan Sachs and countless friends. He will lie in repose at his home at 66 Laurie Drive where a Wake will be held throughout the day Saturday prior to sunset services at the Gazebo at the Fort Walton Yacht Club followed by a reception at the Club for family and friends. Memorial donations can be made to the Florida Audubon Society in his name.

Dear family and friends,

It is with great sadness that we bring you the news that on Monday morning, January 1st 2007 at 9:52 A.M. Central Time, Edgar Hall Tennis passed from this life into whatever awaits us all.

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Hard to believe. Stuck in a box forty years ago. Yellow around the edges.
Poems I had forgotten about, and not too bad.
I kinda like that.

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TWENTY THEMES FOR A POET

PRIVACY DESTROYS

FINE VS POP

NO GRAY AREAS

EAST & WEST ARE IN SESSION AT LAST

TELLING OUR STORY DEFEATS CRUELTY

NOT SIMPLY PURPOSE VS. CHANCE– NOT.

ADVOCATES ARE HEROES.

LANGUAGE IS OUR INTERNAL SENSE ORGAN.

MUTUAL REGULATION IS THE SINE QUA NON OF MARRIAGE.

HUGS STRENGTHEN PEOPLE.

UNDIRECTED, MEANDERING, RUMINATING — QUITE USEFULLY BETWEEN
THE EXTREMES OF A GRAND EXPANSION AND A NARROW CONSTRICTION OF
THE HUMAN POSSIBILITIES.

COMPARISON OF PEOPLE IS INHERENTLY INVIDIOUS.

JUDGEMENT IS AN ACTION WITHIN THE UNCONSCIOUS, AND HOW WE DO IT
IS UNKNOWABLE (ALSO LEARNING, REMEMBERING, ANALYSIS,
SYNTHESIS, ETC)

PRIVACY IS A FORM OF EXTREMISM –IT IS CRUEL.

HABIT IS A BAD. HABITS ARE USEFUL AND DANGEROUS SUBTLY.

THE EYE SELDOM SEES WHAT THE MIND DOES NOT ANTICIPATE.

THERE IS NO CONCENSUS AS TO WHAT CONSTITUTES THE GOOD PERSON
–NOT IN THE USA– BECAUSE WE HAVE NO COMMON VOCABULARHY
TO DISCUSS IT.

CRUEL IS THE WORST THING YOU CAN SAY.

FEAR, HOWEVER NOT ACKNOWLEDGED, MOVES US MORE THAN ANYTHING
ELSE.

WE CAN ONLY THINK WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY KNOWN.

“Theodicy. 9/11 and our puzzling pursuit of the evil Saddam H. show that a much different view of the world obtains in our govt than what you describe for yourself (or me).” –a friend.
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An elderly friend, a poet from Kansas, used to prate on about “This Latter-day Rome.” That was 1946. He saw the exercise of national power in the corrosive light of Gibbon’s study of the rise and fall of Rome.

The example sits there, grinning at me. Yet, I still deny. It does not carry the ring of truth: too facile, perhaps.

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THE PUBLIC POLICY AND THE LAW

Introduction:

I live in a community where the majority of the prosperous people are direct
beneficiaries of monthly checks from the paymasters of the U. S. government: Most notable the military, the civil service, and the Social Security Administration. This is a famously conservative community in politics. Mr. Everyman’s favorite complaint is about the wasteful practices of government workers of all kinds– including elected ones.

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When I try to look at the workings of western culture/society over
the past several thousands of years, I ask, What were we doing? What did
we discover? What did we accomplish?

And then I look for the works of art which seem to define or
illuminate the period.

So, what did we discover? What have we really done?

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For some reasons out of my bureaucratic experience, I always think of it as The Comprehensive Planning Process. An unimportant embellishment, I know. 

If there is any one thing you should be famous for, this is it. I don’t care who originally invented it. Like most good things, many people did. All about the same time because they were creating out of the same culture, the same intellectual environment.

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Lesson Number One:

There is good statistics and bad statistics.

As with most thing in life, what is bad can only be appreciated by
understanding what is good. An example of a good statisticis is “the average
weight of the Raider’s offensive line 268 pounds”. This is known as a
Descriptive Statistic. It is a measurement that tell you something about a
group of objects or events.

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Joe–
Went through everything, clicking all the way and waiting.  As usual, web
waiting seemed a burden.  I know, it is the nature of the beast; but, like
grizzley bears, it prevents people from visiting the scenery.
Over all the design and the logic seemed to work well, and made sense.  One
minor exception:  “…buy books on (ON?) our….”  From?  If I am buying, I
like to deal with the party I am buying from not the “place,” such as a WWW
site, where the deal appears visible–in reality that is my “:desktop.”

Considering the present cumbersome state of WWW, I think the major problem is
color separation, for me most noticeable in the Joe10 design, but also
apparent in the others.
The only other distraction (and I do not know how ti charecterize it) was the
“Tools We’ll Use” and “Book Reviews” button.  Putting two things into one
button threw me for a minute, looked like an error, then I recovered after
clicking anyway, despite feeling subtly alienated, and decided it was Okay.
BUT, those few moments of alienation/strangeness before I
clicked-waited-read, they signal a warning, a red flag of some kind.
Deviation from a pattern is  an accented event.
L–h.