- In the two-plus years that I've occupied this space,
I've gotten a variety of responses to the words I've put here.
-
- On the positive side, once, while walking through the
Paradise Town Square, I heard someone say, "That's the most intelligent
man in the county." (At which point I could only stop and turn and
say, "Um probably not, but thanks."
-
- On the negative side, there was the old boy who marched
up to me and said, "You're makin' trouble for me with my wife. She
wants me to be more creepy-crawly crazy like you." (To which I could
only say, "Um sorry - I think.")
-
- I've gotten e-mail from people thanking me for what I've
written, "because seeing the mistake that woman made when she married
a man she didn't know very well kept me from marrying the same kind of
guy."
-
- And I've gotten e-mail from people furious about what
I wrote, "because you're so wrong about everything from dogs to doctors
to ghosts that it just makes me sick about where our world is going these
days."
-
- But today, as a result of some words I put down awhile
back about speaking at Paradise High School, I received a unique response.
-
- A heartfelt note about something that just happened to
a caring high school teacher and former student of mine here at Cloud Creek
Institute For The Arts. Here, cut a bit so it'll fit, is what she wanted
to share:
-
- "Steve and Derek were two seniors placed in my study
hall last year by a dean determined to see them graduate despite their
frequent self-sabotaging efforts. It was bad enough they came with attitude
and became worse when they discovered a few friends already [there]
-
- "I probably paid a little more attention to [these
two] because the dean asked me to help her out My interest wasn't rooted
in oppression but in the desire to see them secure a future - something
most adults didn't believe about them
-
- "They began sitting with me up at my table I brought
in breakfast. We studied. We talked. I learned about their lives, enough
to know there ought to be an award for kids who find the strength just
to get on the school bus every morning They talked to me like I wasn't
a teacher. We talked about the things they were interested in and as it
is with most teenage boys we spoke mostly about girls and cars.
-
- "My dad left the 1967 Chrysler 300 that sits in
my driveway. The one with the 440 under the hood. The one Derek listened
to at lunch when I said it made a funny noise. The one Steve made me promise
to sell to him if we ever wanted to get rid of it. After they graduated,
they came to visit asking about the Chrysler and more, then willing to
get it in driving condition this summer for my son.
-
- "Except that's not going to happen. Friday, Steve
shot himself at Derek's house. Estranged from his family, depressed and
drunk, he'd been crashing on Derek's couch for several months .
-
- "I came across Derek in the hallway. On seeing me,
he gave a weak half-wave, then walked over, put his head on my shoulder
and cried. I hugged this boy who discovered his best friend's body on his
bathroom floor, and I told him I was sorry because I couldn't say it was
going to be OK
-
- "I [too] cried for the good kid with the big heart,
who was born to a crappy life and got so very, very lost Maybe I can't
write a different ending for Steve, but I can make sure there's a record
somewhere that he existed.
-
- "Steve was 19 years old. He had dark brown hair
and brilliant blue eyes. He wore T-shirts, never white, and a black leather
jacket all year round. He loved cars, and he wanted to be a mechanic. This
is all I can bring myself to say. It is not enough to describe the soul
of the boy who no longer walks this planet. There are not enough words
."
-
- My Former Student the High School Teacher is right. There
aren't enough words. There never are. But hers are strong and straight
and true. And they're on the record, here and now. Just as Steve himself
is on record in the Universe's Honor Roll, for living and trying - and
getting on the bus.
-
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- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
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- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org. Brody, his wife and their dogs,
cats, horses and chickens live in Marion County, Arkansas. The other residents
of the mythical town of Paradise reside in his imagination.
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