A couple in Dania Beach Florida celebrates 70 (yes, seventy) years of wedded bliss this coming August 17th. Magazzu & Leto have been a couple since 1939. When they first met, the New York World's Fair was in full swing, Hitler had just invaded Poland, and gasoline was 17 cents a gallon."We're not going to have a party," said Magazzu, 97, insisting they're too old for such things. "Oh yes we are," responded Leto, 96, who noted the two can still polka. "This is a big one."
A big one indeed, particularly since the two have kept a secret between them for nearly all those seventy years. When they met, in New York, Magazzu was a former Army medic and teacher, and Leto was a telegraph operator. It was one of those love at first sight kinds of things. Before they knew it they were madly in love, and sharing a flat in Manhattan where they lived together for almost fifty years. There were the usual ups and downs, of course--career disappointments, health issues, an adoption--not a child, but a pet monkey named Chi Chi. Life in New York City has many advantages, not least of which is the ability to live anonymously in one of the most congested places on earth. Magazzu and Leto were able to come and go unquestioned, and virtually unknown by neighbors and colleagues.
We never know what goes on in the lives of people around us. Few of us even know our next door neighbors: their names, occupations, kids' names, spouses etc. But the unknowns can turn us around, and astonish us, too. They can make us realize that most of the time we don't even know ourselves all that well. Greek philosopher Hermes' said in Kybalion that "all truths are but half truths--all paradoxes may be reconciled". In other words, what I say is always different from the way you hear me say it. And some members of our society, those living with fearful secrets, hear what we say--when our racial, ethnic, or other deprecations, comments about Jews, blacks, gays, lesbians find their way into our conversation and we don't know the hurt they can cause. We propel ourselves through life never understanding the simple realities that stand directly in front of us, the half-truths that are realities for other people.
We never know what goes on in the lives of people around us. Few of us even know our next door neighbors: their names, occupations, kids' names, spouses etc. But the unknowns can turn us around, and astonish us, too. They can make us realize that most of the time we don't even know ourselves all that well. Greek philosopher Hermes' said in Kybalion that "all truths are but half truths--all paradoxes may be reconciled". In other words, what I say is always different from the way you hear me say it. And some members of our society, those living with fearful secrets, hear what we say--when our racial, ethnic, or other deprecations, comments about Jews, blacks, gays, lesbians find their way into our conversation and we don't know the hurt they can cause. We propel ourselves through life never understanding the simple realities that stand directly in front of us, the half-truths that are realities for other people.
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