When I was four years old, I
naturally did not pay much attention to politics. So, in 1999, when
my mother took me into the voting booth with her, and suffered a
sudden attack of diffidence, who would she turn to? Me, of course.
"Who do you think I
should vote for?" she asked, "Bush or Gore?"
I had no clue who she had in
mind, but my intelligent mind determined that a bush was a nice
thing, leafy and nice, while gore was like goring people, and nasty.
So,
"Bush," I replied.
She fortunately had already
been going to pick Bush, but I gave her confidence in her choice a
large boost.
When I was 6, I saw 9-11. I
remember my father betting that that tower would not fall over.
Unfortunately it did, though I had no knowledge of what it caused at
the time. To me, it was just something on the television. I did not
get the sad part of it.
I was 7 I believe when we
declared war on Iraq and Afghanistan. My mother asked me who I wanted
to win the war, the U.S., or Afghanistan. Unlike the time in the
voting booth, she was not asking me to confirm her thoughts. They
were already set. I returned to my logic of the past, and thought. An
afghan was a warm wool like blanket that we had several of in our
house, while the U.S.- we didn't have any of those in our house.
"Afghanistan," I
responded.
She kindly informed me that it should be the U.S. I should want to win, not Afghanistan. I figured that getting 50% of these guesses right was pretty good.
When I was 11, I remember
Katrina hitting Louisiana. The thing that stuck out to me was that
the worst part of the hurricane went over Alabama, yet Alabama got
hardly any media attention at all. This hurricane, along with all the
other hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, heat waves, etc., in the
news for the rest of the country and world, reaffirmed my prior
convictions that I was very glad I lived in Maine.
When I was fifteen, I saw
the Haiti earthquake. I got to see the Haitian man standing before
the cameras with devestation and death at his back saying
"We got no internet, no
cell phone, no food, no water."
And I sure hoped that this Haitian had a peculiar personal habit of his, of naming the least important things first,
otherwise, I would have difficulty sympathising with him.
When I was seventeen- wait,
I am yet to find out what occurences of great significance to me and
the world shall happen this year into the next, but I am certain that it
will memorable. To all of us.
Tom--very droll. Each year is given its greater significance and also your understanding or misunderstanding of that significance and its part in your life. Each one of these little vignettes is handled with care and celerity, just as they should be, and each follows the same can't-lose pattern.
ReplyDeleteSo, be happy--and never forget that you're here because the state of Maine decided to set up the VTI system 45 years ago and decided to do more than establish trade schools and because the state made homeschooling a reasonable possibility 20 years ago and because separate educational institutions for men and women were largely being phased out 40 years ago (I worked here with a woman who once styled herself 'Dean of Woman' because she was the only woman teacher on campus...and there was only one female student.) Many of your classmates are here because of economic conditions and because the government made student loans possible. Many people are NOT here because student loans are fairly onerous. Your favorite English teacher is here to teach you partly because of his draft deferment during the Vietnam years, which led him into graduate school.
And so on--it's not just the headline events that explain where we are and why.
But 'droll' is the key word--you have a very nice line in deadpan humor.
ReplyDelete