I'm It

My brother Oliver tagged me to write five things you might not know about me. Given that many of you are good friends or family, this is a difficult task. Hopefully, you will learn at least one or two things that you did not know about me.

1. If Herndon Intermediate had a zero tolerance policy, I may never have made it out of there. Like many of you, Junior High/Middle School/Intermediate was not my finest hour. How I did not get suspended for having bottle rockets at school is beyond me. (Yes, bottle rockets are illegal in Virginia and I was selling them to a friend, or buying them, can't remember.) Obviously, I was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. (Not much has changed.) But we won't mention the day I skipped school or the time some friends and I moved the tail end of a small car so it could not leave its parking space. Really, I should just move on. My children aren't reading this, are they? Do I have to remember this post when they are that age?


2. As long as we are talking about Intermediate, when I was in 7th and 8th grade one of my favorite activities was skateboarding. I didn't have the body of a skateboarder, but I sure skated a lot then. I even wore some of the skater clothes, but not the haircut and I didn't really do the skater music.


3. I married a Homecoming Queen. Its true. Not only is she beautiful, she is wonderful and perfect for me in every possible way. I am certainly not the homecoming royalty type, but I did marry well. Not bad for a geek.


4. My marriage life is a stereotypical traditional marriage from the perspective of the husband's and wife's roles and responsibilities. This really deserves its own post. As the man in the relationship, I like to discuss differences. As the woman, Mary likes to be silent and just let it pass. Mary likes to hit the sporting events and I take her to museums or the ballet. Mary is the disciplinarian. I tend to be more affectionate with the children. I am much more sentimental about objects and other things. (That is not saying much. This is a compliment, but I have never met someone less sentimental about things than Mary. One secret for why she is so organized. And those things are not going with us after this life anyway, so might as well be unsentimental about them now.) I could go on, but you get the idea.


5. My favorite poem is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". It has been for as long as I can remember. The first time I read this poem it spoke to me. Though this has always been my favorite poem*, I did not know much about Thomas Stearns. I have recently read "T. S. Eliot" by Lyndall Gordon. The book is dense and I did not understand all of the references to Eliot's works, but I still learned a lot. He was a curious man with interesting ideas. One quote for you to ponder:

   Surely there is something wrong in our attitude towards money. The acquisitive, rather than the creative and spiritual instincts, are encouraged. The fact that money is always forthcoming for the purpose of making more money, whilst it is so difficult to obtain ... for the needs of the most needy, is disturbing to those who are not economists.
   —T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society

Well, that is my list of five things and I did not even bring up the shot put. Who would I like to learn more about? Let's see...

• Dad it is time to start posting again.
• Mom needs to post for the first time. Ask Oliver or Dad for some pointers on how to start.
• Let's hear Matt's five things as well.
• And I am really missing some White Trash in my life. (Don't let us down. You never do when you get around to posting your musings.)

*There are two other poems that had an impact on me. The first is a nonsense poem that Brian and Dan wrote on a long bus ride home from high school. (Disclaimer: I was peripherally involved but did not contribute much to the final poem.) It is truly a work of art.

The second is a poem a friend in high school, Ravi Shankar, wrote. After I read it a couple of times, I finally got what he was saying. It helped me understand more about the power of confession and poetry. The beginning of the first and all of the second are published here without express written consent from the authors.

Bang, bang, swing of hammer,
Inmates working in the slammer,
Inner city has no glamour,
Swallow retainer, sputter and stammer,
Enter castle with a rammer,
Radio silenced — electro jammer.

Dropping, falling, white bird bomber,
If you're hot then ride a llama,
You're too young, go cry to mama,
Smelly shoes and wet pajamas,
After that, go maim a chicken.

This goes on for twelve more stanzas.

Envy

Once a girl always a girl
belonged if humans could be bought
but not sold to a man.   We shall
call him man not to bias the sample.
The man contributed greatly to 537
nanometers of light tingling in my
innards that could not be portrayed
nor sought and pinpointed.
Needless.
Needless to say   my heart was   inside
my body and i knew an exterior and interior.
Built a home more of a cage and
inside green   outside painted on
blue and yellow   and white. Eventually
so it goes as all action produces
a reaction heralded science i myself
was in the cage rattling. Could i
but realize or have realized as post
mortum goes that even
manacles are better than a cage
made of 537 nanometers of light and
me. Paint slowly dries and hardens
though, and still my heart races.
So it goes.