It happened in East Liverpool, Ohio. If you don’t know East Liverpool, it is in Columbiana County, in the northeast corner of the state. A very small county, population wise, with only 11,000 people there today. There is a Ceramics Museum on Fifth Street, and the “World’s Largest Teapot.” But not much else, really.
At any rate, that’s where Pretty Boy Floyd was shot and killed. In a cornfield. He was running away from a bunch of FBI agents and local law officers. That was it. He was 30. Pretty Boy was a bank robber, and, at the time of his death, he was number one on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
Charles Arthur Floyd , born on February 3, 1904, and died too young, on October 22, 1934. He started his career early because his family was extremely poor. The Depression only made things worse. When Pretty Boy would rob a bank, he’d also go in and destroy all the mortgage papers, freeing lots of families from the debts hanging over their heads. This made him pretty popular among the every-day-Joes. But. In the end, all that bank robbing finally killed him.
People do desperate things when they need money. That’s for sure.
You may have noticed that today is his birthday. It is also the birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, born in 1809. He was a composer and a pianist. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are many, many more, including Songs Without Words, which is probably his most famous solo piano composition.
He was born in Germany, but Mendelssohn came from a highly prominent family. They could afford to send him to Paris when he was six years old for piano lessons. His parents wanted him to have the finest education, and that’s exactly what he received. He was trained by the most famous composers and piano virtuosos of that time.
Mendelssohn met people like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and he began conducting in some of the most prestigious arenas. He came from wealth and continued in that fashion. He toured all of Europe, performing in all the influential musical circles. But his extensive schedule and touring exhausted him. He died, too young, in 1847, at the age of 38, from a series of strokes.
Two different men, in two different centuries, from two different backgrounds. Same ending. They died.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from their lives. And. While I am sure that many poor people have come through the ranks, and made great lives for themselves, the opportunities afforded to the rich are so much greater. But history certainly has seen successes on both ends of the spectrum.
In the end, they both made people happy in their own, unique ways. Whether that was their individual intentions, or not. And so another chapter. We can see many messages from looking back, as we look forward. Charles. Felix. It makes one wonder what the universal “point” might be, in life. I would argue that there may not be one. That we each have our very own point. Our thing we do, in every moment. That might be it. Each minute is the most important minute. Everything is the fundamental meaning of life.
It could be.
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“I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”
― François Rabelais
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“In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.
And God said, “Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.” And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. “What is the purpose of all this?” he asked politely.
“Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.
“Certainly,” said man.
“Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,” said God.
And He went away.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
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“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”
― Anaïs Nin
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