Archive: Objects Around My House. Part 3.

Life lessons of Mr. Miyagi:

I spent a small amount of time in Natchez, Mississippi. A historic, deep south town with a more infamous past than New Orleans. It was the most notorious home of riff-raff and debauchery in the world, in its day.
I spent an interesting evening of drinking at the Under the Hill Saloon. Most of the night, I was enthralled and amazed by the bartender, a little old man with a striking resemblance to Mr. Miyagi. Judge for yourself…



At the end of the night, I offered to help him close the bar. He accepted, then proceeded to give me a series of life lessons. First he had me sit in a back room of the bar and stare at a pair of chopsticks. He left me there for nearly ten minutes before coming back and asking, “what did you learn?” I stumbled trying to find the correct response. So he left me for ten minutes more. Finally he came back and, frustrated with my ignorance, told me how one chopstick was my mind and one was my heart. Either one on there own can’t pick anything up, but together they are a powerful tool. Deep, I know.

Then he took me outside, sat me on a bench and told me to stare at a tree across the way. When he came back and asked me what I learned, he was still frustrated that the lesson wasn’t obvious to me. I don’t remember this lesson quite as well, but it had to do with the age of the tree, strength, and so on.

Before I left, he handed me this:



It was a drawing of the bar and he had written on the back:



He made sure to point out the handwriting, as he is apparently from a long line of historical figures and was taught at a young age the art  of penmanship.
It reads as follows:

My friend Markus Taylor Rutledge
Welcome to Natchez Under the Hill on the
Banks of the Mighty Mississippi River
The Under the Hill Saloon welcomes you
you have visited the (illegible) Dixie. You
Are in Rhett Butler and Robert E. Lee
Country. the old South

Written by
Jack Daniels

Your Irish bartender
John David

10th December 2004

To Grasshopper
from Mister Miyagi
_________________________________

Here are some close ups:

And yes, he did refer to himself as Mr. Miyagi. Amazing.
He offered me a place to stay if ever I go back and I wouldn’t mind taking him up on it someday.

To learn more about Mr. Miyagi, go to www.underthehillsaloon.com

Check back for more tales from: Objects Around My House

Oh. and if you don’t know who Rhett Butler is, as I didn’t, it is of course…