After a madhouse van ride from the Mathaiga Country Club to the Nairobi airport, I was happy to settle into a quiet, well-ordered airline cabin en rout to Rome.  I took a deep breath, stretched out and started thinking about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  You know the story.  A decent, high-minded doctor bemoans the fact that mankind is a confusing mixture of good and evil.  He hopes, with the help of science, to divide the positive from the negative in man.  This is step one.  In step two, the evil element will be banished.  We all know how it ends.  The well-meaning Dr. Jekyll succeeds in phase one.  But, the evil Mr. Hyde, once released, refuses to be banished.  As Hyde’s wickedness grows more and more unmanageable and powerful, the good Dr. Jekyll is driven to suicide to end both lives--good and bad together.

So why would I be contemplating the implications of the Jekyll and Hyde story on a flight from Nairobi to Rome?  Well, first off, Mary was waiting for me in Rome.  The prospects of being with her after spending two weeks in Africa had me feeling--eager.  It also had me thinking about the a.m. and p.m. of my life.  By that I don’t mean the morning and the afternoon.  I mean pre-Mary and after-Mary.

See, in the pre-Mary of my adult life, I’d have to say, on balance, I probably had more in common with the wicked Mr. Hyde.  In the after-Mary of my life, I still look a lot like Mr. Hyde, but there are signs of improvement.

Whereas  the pre-Mary Hink was frequently known to resort to ‘head bustin’ if he happened to be present when bad manners were getting out of control, the after-Mary Hink is more apt to make a hard run at diplomacy first.  See?  Progress on the road to Jekyllhood. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  There will always be a healthy Hyde alive and well lurking somewhere below the surface in every manly man--no matter how wholesome he may look on the outside.

But the truth is, having a generous dose of Hyde on a strong leash looks good on a manly man.  Gives him spirit and adds an extra dose of moral quality when he chooses to do the right thing.  It might even be said: When Hyde is on the prowl for living quarters, wimps need not apply.

Even so, Hyde is diminished in the after-Mary Hink for one reason and one reason only.  Mary just doesn’t like Mr. Hyde.  So I keep him on a real tight leash because I want to be more like the good Dr. Jekyll for her sake.

But still, I don’t think this will come as a surprise to my sweetheart.  I kinda like old Hyde.  He’s interesting.  He’s fun.  Ok, ok.  I’ll admit he’s got his rough edges.  But who doesn’t?  He’s really…he’s got this…he can…Well alright.  If it makes you happy we’ll keep him in the attic.

Robert Louis Stevenson published that story in 1896.  He patterned the tale on a real character history knows as Deacon Brodie, a pillar of sobriety by day and an outlaw ruffian by night.  Let this be a lesson to us all.  Brodie got strung up in the end.

In closing, let me leave you with a Stevenson quote from El Dorado.  “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”  All I can say to that is, Mr. Stevenson never arrived in Rome to find Mary waiting for him.

Oh by the way.  This column is scheduled for the November 13 edition.  Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850.  Happy birthday Bob. 

I’m Hink and I’ll see ya.

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