Well, the good news is as we all collectively orbit the Sun, we are now along the relative position for Spring, and I would not dare let this opportunity pass to express that clearly Prosperina has emerged from her time in Hades with her husband, Pluto.
I know these Greek and Roman myths can be a bit confusing, and pesky to understand, but today I feel a certain kinship with Prosperina. Now in my novel, Fishing for Light, Ms. Prosperina is a nasty, shape-shifting Chimera that intends to take over humanity by in part, messing with your coffee. I recommend you consider that point the next time you are standing in line at 8 in the evening at your local coffee emporium. I will let you Google, ‘chimera’. But it comes from both mythology and genetics, I know, I know, but get a sense of humor and play along, okay?
I have a new appreciation for the term, or label, ‘hearty mid-westerner’. As in, I am in awe at how they tolerate the gray, dull Winter days that pass by at the ‘speed of snail mail darkness’. While we lived in St. Louis, I am proud to write, I did not develop an ‘eye-tick’ like the Chief Inspector from the Pink Panther series. And I would have given anything to be attacked by a hiding Kato, to feel my warm pulse race, and then travel back in time riding in the Green Hornet. But alas, it was quiet enough in our neighborhood, Clayton, to hear each unique snow flake fall to add inches to the ubiquitous white powder, and as I made myself exercise outside – with each frozen step, as I sucked in the cold air, I heard the ice crunch under my formally warm feet, and then I’d start listening in my mind to The Talking Heads in a continuous loop:
“You may find yourself in another part of the world,
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile,
You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife,
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down,
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground,
Into the blue again after the money’s gone ,
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground”
Thankfully, I do have a beautiful wife, but I did not start to gyrate like David Byrne from The Talking Heads original video, yes, go back in time with me to a forgotten time when MTV meant MUSIC TELEVISION, and it was not an insipid, stupid, childish waste of my time television, but emerging music, that was a place I first saw and heard a group named, U2. And by the way, where have you gone, Martha Quinn?
But just as Prosperina emerged from Hades during the Spring, we have emerged to find our feet standing in the sunshine of Houston. This time LAST year, I had gazed out from my home office window at the specter of TEN INCHES of snow on the first day of Spring. Yes, I wrote, TEN INCHES, or 10 inches, or 1o”! And that was NEW, NEW SNOW, not the stuff that had already frozen shut my every orifice. I recommend you think, Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining type look that I had in St. Louis. And where did you go in that movie, Scatman Crothers? And yes, I do miss my favorite cartoon, Hong Kong Phooey, “number one super guy”.
BUT, today, I gazed out from our temporary abode at green grass, palm trees and all else visible that was bathed in the beauty of Sun Light! And yes, this pasty-white, middle-aged dude will be doing something that children across these United States used to do back in the old days, I’m going to take my dog, Pink Pentunia with me, and we are going outside and – play!
NS
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