Somewhere in the garage in which I keep all of memories is the complete tale of a school assignment in which we wrote a letter to her royal highness.
The event took place long enough ago that I don’t recall exactly how it came about which is why I went with the You Ought To Write A Letter To The Queen headline.
I have some recollection of being told I was being forward for suggesting that one day I would take the queen out of her shmata and show her what life could be like if she let go.
“Dear Queen, you over think life and if you ventured out of your winter castle and hung out with me I could take you places no one else ever has. But hey if you prefer to hide away and tend to your English garden you’ll regret it.”
If memory serves I was informed that male bravado wasn’t always a good thing.
“Humility goes a long way.”
“Yes it does, but if you can do what you say sometimes you need to advocate for yourself or the queen never leaves her castle.”
At least I think it went something like that, memories are a funny thing. Could be wrong on some of it, but not all.
Not all, because I know some things without question and haven’t any doubt about the veracity of my claims. .
A True Accounting
Somewhere in the garage there is a box containing some of my old school papers. I didn’t save many but I know I have a selection of pieces I wrote that provide a snapshot of life and my thoughts during those years.
Been thinking it might be kind of interesting to revisit some of it to see if it jibes with how I think about it. Might be interesting to get a true accounting.
There is no particular purpose to engaging in it other than my curiosity.
Most of that is centered upon my writing and interest in trying to determine if I have made significant improvements in it or if I have been treading water.
****
Reminds me a bit of the basic exercises I have been doing in the home office, nothing real sophisticated, just curls and push ups.
A while back I noticed I wasn’t able to perform as expected and I realized I must have slacked off. Got no good reason for it, just did.
Blame it on life. Blame it on a mild bout of tendonitis or just call it laziness. The root cause is of less interest to me than the recognition that things didn’t go as I wanted.
Acknowledged the issue and made a couple of adjustments and smiled because things started coming back in a hurry.
Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.
****
I joined my junior high school newspaper in 7th grade so I suppose you can say that is when I started to think about writing as something other than a school task I didn’t want to be bothered with.
Took a year off from the newspaper in 8th grade because I got this idea about being a part of leadership and successfully won an election as an 8th grade rep.
When I lost the race to become the 9th grade president I rejoined the newspaper and started participating in writing contests we called write-offs.
Didn’t take first place in most, but almost always won something and that kept the competitive part of me fired up.
It is also where I realized that I could apply learning how to write a timed newspaper story to writing essays for various classes.
For a kid who didn’t care about grades that was a pretty nice moment. My grades weren’t bad, I could regurgitate information with the best of them.
Report cards had a nice mix of A’s and B’s for the most part but once I realized that there was no uniform way of grading and the overall uselessness of grades I lost most of my interest in them.
Write Your Truth
Looked at a picture and it brought forward a ton of memories and ideas along with a deep and familiar ache. Took a moment to consider why that ache chose to present itself and engaged in some introspection
Was interrupted by a work call in which someone asked me what Cleveland County I was talking about in a prior email.
I said I think it is Cuyahoga but wasn’t positive and told them it is likely tied to a 216 area code.
They said that didn’t sound correct and asked if I was going to visit.
“I don’t have any immediate reason to go to Ohio that I am aware of.”
“Ohio, that is the wrong direction, much longer drive than Cleveland”
And then I realized they were correct, the Cleveland County they were referring to is in Oklahoma, about three hours from here as opposed to 15 or 16.
Served as a good reminder that multitasking isn’t always an effective way to work.
****
Somewhere in that old assignment to write the queen is some snark about royalty not having to worry about certain things.
The queen isn’t doing the driving or flying to any of the Clevelands or other locations she visits and neither is the prince.
They are not worried about grades, budgets or hyperbolas because they have people to deal with that for them. At the time that sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
I hear rumors that life might be a little more challenging than the simplistic way I thought of it then and outlined here.
There is some basic curiosity on my part as to how true that is or isn’t but for the most part I don’t care. And though I like the idea of not having financial concerns I dislike the idea of not being to just live my life.
I can come and go as I please without concern about paparazzi, kidnapping or interference by the public. Would rather have to worry about paying my bills and retain the ability to walk in public without concern.
But it might be kind of nice to have my own castle complete with drawbridge and all the accessories.
Who knows, maybe I really ought to write the queen and demand an audience. You never know what can happen, that is what makes life interesting. Could wind up with my own castle or who knows what.
