(0 votes)
Loading ...It Is for Us, the Living
A picture might be too much.
It is my unfortunate responsibility to inform you that I no longer have a roommate. Following a few weeks of sickness, minimal eating and rather disturbing croaking, he was relegated to that great terrarium in the sky.
Honestly, I’m over it.
And I don’t think I’ll replace him.
See, Twerp and his environs were yet another manifestation of a perversion I’m discovering in new and varied corners my life: potential.
I’ve always been told I have potential. Certain events supported that notion. But somewhere along the way, I began to confuse potential with achievement. Learning precluded graduating. A quick start forestalled a strong finish. Flexibility delayed function.
And how does a dead turtle teach this?
To know that, you must know my turtle as I knew him.
Twerp’s story begins last summer when I began considering ways to make my apartment less sterile without becoming plush. It was a delicate balance for a guy who would happily accept the label of metro, but refuses on principle to invest the time or money to achieve that end. Life seemed an appropriate addition.
I got a plant from a leaving teacher and planned to get a fish. Then fish fever break out among the foreign teachers. I suppose it’s pride that disallows following a trend you start, but fish were no longer an option. My fourth-floor friends came to the rescue with a turtle. I realized the need to upgrade his living space from the plastic cube he arrived in, and secured a turtle tank big enough for swimming and equipped with ramped basking deck. Somehow, it never went anywhere from there. I knew where and how to get stones for the bottom. I planned for plants to decorate the place and provide him a more balanced diet, but I never did. I envisioned a spectacular microcosm of life and color and joy. He died never knowing how nice his world could have been.
In Memoriam of Twerp: (sometime before) 19 September 2008 – 19 April 2009
May we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
4 Comments
poor twerp. I’d say we’ll miss him, but it might not be exactly truthful.
Potential is only potential for a limited time. Then it just becomes waste.
Sorry to hear that Justin:(
God bless Twerp.
It never occured to me that you are a sentimental person.
Your article is concluded from a line from Lincoln’s famous speech.
I can recite that speech very fluently to you,someday ,sir.
haha///
I was showing last year Camp's video and Sam was there…happily swimming..A miniature of a zen garden is sill on option.
Leave a comment