"Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye' know on earth, and all ye' need to know." Keats wrote those words 190 years ago, before he died at age 26. How did he know this as such a young man?

I thought about that the other night when my friend said he'd read a study that 75% of all teens lie. I fInd that troubling.

You know how fathers are. We're always firing clichés at our children as they dive for cover under their iPhones.

If you had only one phrase to leave to your kids, what would it be? The Golden Rule? Polonius' words to Laeretes: "This above all, to thine own self be true?" Shakespeare could no doubt provide one with scores of lines that would stand kids in good stead.

The Bible, of course, has more meaningful sayings than any book ever written. But the Bhagavad Gita and the Koran are not exactly chopped liver. Confucius was no slouch.

The Federalist Papers may contain the noblest sentiments ever written regarding the governing of free men . From the signers of the Declaration, to Lincoln, to Mark Twain and Will Rogers, America has produced phrase makers who can give Aristotle, Plato and Socrates a run for their drachmas.

(When the Goobs was pregnant, on the theory that a fetus can hear, I used to whisper two things into her belly, each night. One, "Remember, we always sleep through the night," and two; the Truth/Beauty line from Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn). I'm not sure either one took.

So, why does this simple phrase from a post-pubescent English Romantic poet stand out so much to those of us of a certain age?

Probably, because of the time when we first heard it. For me, it was the early 60's, right here in the Stone Building at St. Helena High. It was continually thrown back at me throughout the decade, like a tear gas canister during my years at Cal--when our school cheer had changed from "Roll on you Bears" to "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust/ We hate to close it down, but we must we must!"

What does it mean? Just what it says. That the truth is beautiful--and that that which is beautiful is true. So, what's the big deal?

It's just that I miss that in kids (and adults) today. Now I know throughout history, each generation thinks the following generation has worse manners than they did. I accept that I will never like the clothes, music, or hair styles that will appeal to my kids, anymore then my folks liked the way I dressed, danced or Butch-waxed my hair.

That's small stuff. In our day, "Phony" was a "Big" word. We were raised on Holden Caufield , Huck Finn, A Thousand Clowns. Folk music, from Pete Seger to Dylan, attempted to articulate America's slide into mediocrity, conformity and mendacity. (Speaking of "mendacity" can anyone forget Tennessee Williams' Cat On a Hot Tin Roof ? Remember Burl Ives as "Big Daddy? " How he was crazed over the mendaciousness of those "no necked monster" grandchildren--How Lear was driven mad by the mendacity of Goneral and Regan--and unable to cope with honesty of Cordillia, the only daughter that truly loved him?).

To be a Hypocrite was the greatest sin in our youth. Today, it's all relative. One gets the feeling the kids have learned it from their parents. "Truth" has become "relative."-not absolute.

I don't know if it's a gene we have or what. But somehow, we instinctively strive for beauty--strive for truth and strive for what is "real." Or if we don't, we definitely know that our lives become desserts when we chase the opposite--when we embrace falsehoods--when we live lies.

Lies are tempting. They promise money, status, power, control, security, fame--the list goes on. It's all the usual subjects. You know them better than I. But they are fleeting. Phony. False. Temporal.

That which is true endures. "A thing of beauty lasts forever."

I also know that it is true, that if it comes from me, my kids may hesitate to embrace it. Which is why, when the kids were growing up, you'd see copies of Keats strewn around the house, with certain pages dog eared.

It takes a phony like me to pass the truth on to those who know that no one knows less about the world than dad!


Jeffrey Earl Warren
James Warren & Son
1414 Main St.
St. Helena, Ca.
94574
707-963-2748