Slice of Life

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

Jean Jullien first coines the phrase “slice of life” back in the late 1800s to describe a literary or artistic work that depicted or exemplified the mundane experiences that most people could relate to and appreciate.

The phrase eventually found its way into TV shows and movies and books and, yes, newspapers. While I usually prefer the term “human interest” story, the “slice of life” label is also pretty common.

I’d say at least half of my “Viewpoinr” columns fall into that category. I like sharing the little adventures in existing I find myself getting into from time to time, like dealing with flat tires or broken air conditioners or going to my daughter’s latest whatever she’s into (she just found out she’s gotten the lead in the upcoming DeltaARTS production of “Alice in Wonderland”

See VIEWPOINT, page A5 VIEWPOINT

From page A4

so that’s pretty cool.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the phrase and while it does do a pretty good job of describing what it is depicting, it also, I think, could aptly describe how our lives actually are — divided up into different “slices” of life.

And it happens in different ways. The most obvious is my time. Because of the way we function as humans, you start out as a baby, then a kid, a teenager, a young adult, a “grown-up” and eventually an old person.

There are pretty cleary-delineated “slices” that kind of separtate things out — you’re in school, you get your driver’s license, you get a job, you get marries, you have kids, you move to a new town, you retire — all of these things are very solidly established slices of life.

Like I worked at Southland Greyhound Park from 1994 to 2003. That is a very thick slice of my life that has almost nothing to do with the rest of my life. I barely see any of the people I used to see every day. I use none of the vast amounts of greyhound racing-related knowledge or skills I used to be absolutely required to have.

I have spen the past 30 years raising kids. That slice will be ending pretty soon as our last kid will be graduating from high school and moving off to college.

I guess my next slice will be as “Pop” and it’s a big slice…