Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Defining moments.

My mom once told me a story about how, during parent teacher conferences, my teacher pulled out a sheet of paper that deeply concerned her. She thought my psyche might be troubled or wondered if I was typically a violent child. I was 9. Who isn’t troubled in…I guess that’s only 3rd grade…nevermind.

We had been working on spelling sentences…or rather, using spelling words in sentences. I wish I knew which word spawned the shocking statement. My guess is “beautiful” but it could also have been “butterfly” or maybe even “heaven”. Unexpected? My teacher thought so too.

What I wrote was this:

“The beautiful butterfly flew high and it got hit by a chopper and went to heaven.”





Naturally.

Every time I think of this story, I imagine that the sentence actually WAS shocking somehow—gorily descriptive, for example—or that I was quite a bit younger and thus an orthographic genius, albeit a bit disturbed. I was probably just commenting on the terrible and thoughtless destruction humans reap on ecosystems around the world…

As for my mom, she thought it ended very nicely. In fact, she kept that sheet of paper for fond memory’s sake.

I also wrote, "Tasty peppers are what my mom and dad eat. I don't care for tasty peppers." Apparently I must have found a tasty something else...look at how chapped those lips are! Note also the pro-nature print.

(This picture is actually from 2nd grade...the beginning of the descent into madness.)

6 comments:

SHELLS BELLS! said...

Love the picture. I've always thought you were violent and the sentence about the butterfly is proof.

Lohra said...

You don't know me!

SHELLS BELLS! said...

I do know you and don't worry, your secrets are safe with me.

Anonymous said...

You have come a long way, my friend. I will only take partial credit. Obviously, your literary prowess began at an early age.

Corinne said...

I should let you read some of Nick's stories he writes for school--I think his teacher thinks we are secretly terrorists.

Anonymous said...

I think you had a very clear perspective on the circle of life. In fact that should have been a line in the song off of "The Lion King"