Sketch, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888
Dear You,
They are playing our song! That has only happened twice in 22 years! Still, it's worth noting, celebrating. The starnies are shining bright, and I still believe it was the right song to choose. Can you imagine? The pressure of choosing just one song? One song, to mean everything? To mean for keeps, to mean 'love', to mean union? I don't know that I could do it today, but I was younger and more confident in those days.
Now this is a bit of a digression, but I lived in Edinburgh for a summer once, and we studied Scots poetry. Scots poetry means Bobbie Burns, for one thing, and a lot of translating for people like me. I loved this, of course, because I love words in all languages. I love that they have all these shades of meaning, and that starnies could equal little stars in basically the same language as my own. If I could get anyone to listen, I might just spend every day talking about a beautiful word of my acquaintance. Or, maybe I don't mean 'listen' so much as I mean 'get paid to.'
I have talked at length on working, jobs, vocations, and careers lately; and it has me asking you this question today: what do you wish they paid you to do? It's only right, I feel, to answer as well as ask, and I think I want to be paid to run a roller rink and to encourage people. Does that sound lofty? What the heck do I mean by 'encourage'? I mean that I want to tell people, often, and on a one to one basis, that they are okay, they are alright, they are here, they are fine, they are heard and valued. Yes, it does sound a bit lofty after all!
