Act Three, Scene the Third
I must not have heard my phone ring while half the bar and I were swearing with teenage glee at the broken Curse.
I suppose I haven’t yet mentioned that while not an outright Red Sox fan, rather a Mets fan, I did 1) go to school in Boston 2) regularly associate with Red Sox fans and 3) despise everything the Yankees stood for; so I rooted for the Sox in the playoffs and was happy for them when they won. Living vicariously through other people still counts as living, people. Remember that–
I got the voicemail when the message buzzed in my pocket. It was my dad calling to share the celebration.
So I called him back, and it was superb to behold.
I then called my friends “M” and “S” of earlier howlingman celebrity.
At that point in the night, I was ready just to experience some of the wonders of the universe, let them absorb into my cynical being, instead of conversing about them, deconstructing them, as I had with the lawyer earlier on.
Wow. Now, I could just have written, “the rest of evening was about appreciating rightness,” but really, the entire evening was about that. Not getting into a car accident, staking a claim in future literary success, conversing with insightful strangers, having some beers and letting so much of the bullshit slide.
Appreciation and learning, and learning to appreciate.
In that vein — I have a habit of asking successful people for advice. Sometimes more specific than others, depending on profession, but I always try to glean a proverb or a single nugget of wisdom that I can add to my cosmic brew to make it fantastic–
So: After the game, night winding down, I asked the lawyer two questions; one practical, one existential.
The first involved my summons for Reckless Driving. In narrative time, the summons was handed out five hours earlier. Since he was a lawyer, too oddly perfect in itself, I figured he’d have some information for me; I wasn’t looking to retain him right then and there, but wanted to ask if a lawyer would be necessary even, and if so, if he could recommend one.
“Elaine Gillies“
Alrighty. Elaine Gillies (names have been changed). Easy enough.
“Tell her you met me at a bar, she’ll be real surprised.”
The lawyer was a self-deprecating wit.
But he was also wise.
Right before I left to get home, to enjoy the moment and then to get some sleep to sleep off the powerful emotions of the day, I asked him for a bit of wisdom.
He took my head in his hands — I was drunk enough not to think he was attacking me — and directed my sight upwards towards the sky. He pointed at the moon and I stared at it.
“Elves and dragons.”
No Comments »