Previous post
A quote: “How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin
I’ll start with a story …
**************************
She stepped on the balcony, the party behind her. He stood looking out over the city.
“It’s almost midnight” she said “Our friends in …”
“They’re not really our friends. We’re just used to hanging with them. Three years out of college and nothing’s changed. New Year’s is just a date. A marker of ‘out with the old,” He laughed, “What’s to celebrate if the old just repeats?”
He pulled her close, “No more living according to my feelings. Time to live according to what’s right.” His hand gently covered her abdomen where their future was just starting.
“Marry me.”
**************************
Now, it’s your turn.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. featured image, cropped, Adobe stock standard license
American Human says: “Hey honey bun, let’s go to dinner somewhere tonight.” His honey bun strolled into the living room with a strange look on her face, “Okay, but let me put in a load of laundry first.” She walked past, sighed loudly and went down to the basement. He stared after her, recalling how their day had started out. He got up, put his shoes on and went into the bathroom, grabbed a brush and cleanser and started in on the sink and toilet, remembering her day. When she came back upstairs, they put their coats on and went out to eat.
Cameron says: My granddaughter looked at the ornament curiously. “Why is it so special to you?”
“My generation is dying out, sweetie. We remember what the country was before the war. We lost a lot of good people in order to bring our government back in line. When it was over, I had four dollars to my name and nothing else. I bought this for fifty cents in a thrift store.
“Countries come and go, my girl. This is a symbol of faith that never leaves. That’s why.”
I know she didn’t quite understand but she still took care of the ornament.
December here in the Boston metro area was a lot different from December back in Iowa. Part of it was maritime vs continental climates — although Roger Blake wasn’t ready for the necessary classes in heat transfer to fully explain the process, he’d known the fundamentals since grade school, that the Atlantic Ocean was a huge heat sink that moderated the extremes of both summer and winter. You could see it to a lesser degree with the Great Lakes — cities like Chicago, Duluth and Detroit had different weather than Des Moines, Minneapolis or Madison.
But it wasn’t just the climate. Call it spirit or temperament, he knew it when he saw it, even if he couldn’t quantify it. And while there was much he loved about this place, there were things he missed. Right now his folks would be putting up the Christmas tree, and for the first time he wouldn’t be there to help put the ornaments on the tree, including the little house he’d made himself from cast acrylic resin in freshman shop class, then wired with a tiny LED bulb. Would Dad remember how to plug it into the regular light string, or would it remain dark until Rog got back home?
What was it his shop teacher had said? Life was always a mixed blessing, and you took the good with the bad. Like being a clone of Robert Noyce meant having to live up to the expectations of his genius — and being aware of the flaws in his personality.
3 Comments