The Real Me: Joanne W. Iverson

My research notes left me wondering: What did Aristotle learn from Plato? Did he learn how to name any of the stars? Could he identify any of them? Did he write about what he learned? 

Anyway, let’s get serious. I started reading the “Great Books” series because I had bought them and I thought they looked good in my bookcase. But honestly, I never read any of them. Until now. 

So I started with Aristotle.
I thought it would be hard to read.  Not at all!

I learned from the very beginning that Aristotle was an ordinary man and not a philosopher, as I had been taught to think of him over the years. He was born of good parents in 384. He lived at home for 17 years before moving to Athens, where he enrolled in the Academy of Athens, run by Plato.

Aristotle taught at the Academy for 20 years. He taught Rhetoric. Plato called Aristotle the “intellect of the school.”

At Plato’s death, Aristotle and three others took over the Academy.

Plato’s teacher had been Socrates. Socrates was accused of “impropriety” and he was sentenced to death by poison. Aristotle defended Socrates. But when he realized that Socrates would soon die, Aristotle returned to his old home. He lived there for only three months, then he died, too.

My conclusion is that Socrates, Pluto and Aristotle lived their lives learning about everything they could and passing it along – either in writing or teaching. Over the centuries, their work sifted down to us who know nothing and profess the need to know it all. After reading about all three of these Greek philosophers and scholars, I concluded that they learned a lot and l learned a lot. Just learning and writing. Not unlike someone I know? Writing from my heart, and my head. 

People should not discount reading about these three scholars. We were supposed to study them in grade school but most of us never did. But can we get to their books later in life? Absolutely. And we shouldn’t be intimidated. They were real people – writing and living – and that’s why we should give them their due.

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I was sitting alone in an abandoned chair under an ancient tree, waiting for someone to notice me.

I so longed to be rescued. The winter has gotten colder, yet only the squirrels have bothered to visit.

Then someone from the nearby Philadelphia School of Circus Arts started practicing their high wire performance routines, right there on the lawn. They strung up cables for their routines, using my tree and others for support. Several little girls came to do their trapeze routines, too. They were so tiny, and afraid of falling in front of the well-trained acrobats performing high above them in the trees.

One of the little girls soon fell down from her trapeze – and toppled into my abandoned chair. I was there, to provide a cushion for her landing. 

Above: “The Abandoned Chair,” commissioned in 2023 by Joanne Iverson, painted by Gregory Prestegord, F.A.N. Gallery.

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When I was very little, I was like our dogs and cats, owning the garden like our happy, dancing dogs and jumping, smiling cats: “With rings on their fingers, bells on their toes, they shall have music wherever they go!” I remember the cats, smiling at us all, begging to be petted, dancing and jumping around like mad because I was also always jumping around.

Then my mother decided to send me to tap dancing school.

I remember being taken there as a little kid. There were big rooms with large windows, wooden floors, tap shoes made of black patent leather with taps on both toes and heels, an upright piano and the lady who played it. Phyllis Gershbach and her husband were the owners. And I remember the teachers. And Walter Lezinsky, a tap dancer who was already a good dancer when I got there and he was the lead performer. 

The place always smelled like sweat. Satin, sequins, make-up and hair spray were always there for our use.

“Yatti Kati Kitty Kati Koo” was a song that I sang as I headed the Hula line of little girls, all wearing fake grass skirts, colorful tops and leis of flowers.

My tapping was as vigorous as can be for a new learner – until I tried acrobatics. Then then I interviewed for the Circus School.  So much for tap dancing!

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