Search This Blog

Saturday, March 15, 2014

A Warning Sign at the Edge of Reality

Guest post by Kevin Tudish
A short excerpt from his book health happiness LOVE longevity peace prosperity and SAFETY
***************************
You indulge a couple years of Pretty Pretty Princess, and now she’s calling seven-card stud, deuces wild when it’s her deal.

And she’s as anxious to win as you are.

You don’t want her passing through your life without leaving a wake, unknown to you.

“What are you watching?” I said.

“Toddlers and Tiaras. Have you seen it?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“These little girls compete in beauty pageants. It’s so weird.”

“Why are you watching it?”

“I don’t know.”

“At least you understand that it’s weird.”

“Look at this mom.”

An overweight mother, spilling out of her sweat clothes, was gyrating in the audience, a massive cue card to keep her daughter’s performance on point.

“Do you wish Mommy and I had entered you in beauty pageants?”

“No.”

“You wouldn’t want to get all made up like that and have a giant hairdo?”

“Dad.”

“Just checking. I’m supposed to facilitate your dreams while you’re a kid. I don’t want some dream going unfulfilled because I was negligent.”

“I just like watching. I don’t want to do it.”

“That’s comforting.”

Comforting, too, to see that we share a fascination with the bizarre, the sign posts for the outer limits of human behavior. And good to have a gyrating warning sign when you get too close.

**************************************
Who is Kevin Tudish? In his own words:

I grew up in a military family, which turned out to be a rich experience for a blue-collar kid. We lived all over America, and spent three years in France.

My parents were both proponents of education and the arts, and so helped finance not only my undergraduate studies in English and my graduate studies in Creative Writing, but also my forays into music, visual art, ballet, and finally my post-graduate study of computer graphics. That last thing got me my first real job after years of waiting tables and tending bar.

I ended up in Silicon Valley, where, it turns out, a liberal-arts education isn't an automatic disqualification from reasonable employment.

You can find Kevin's book here, on Amazon.
Crossposted at goodreads.

No comments:

Post a Comment