Cake Walk

When I was about six, I visited the local Lion's Club Variety Show (inside winter carnival) for the first time. I was in awe. The lights, the noise, the distractions. And I just knew good things would happen here before it was over. While I was glad to be there I wasn't quite yet clued in on what was going on.
I stepped into a large room with people lining the wall, when suddenly the man in the middle shouted, "That little girl there wins!"
"But she just walked in!" someone else said.
"Well, she's got a ticket!"
The next thing I know I was in the middle of the room picking out a huge chocolate cake. I'd just won a cake walk I didn't know I'd entered. Yes, I did have a ticket, but I hadn't yet figured out exactly what I was doing. Did I deserve to win when so many others were there first -- and knew what they were there for?
That's how I imagined Presiden Barak Obama felt yesterday on waking to hear he'd won the Nobel Prize for Peace. Yes he was in the room. Yes the presidency is his ticket. But did he feel it was quite fair to the others for him to win when he'd only just barely stepped in the room?
Maybe, maybe not. I expect, however, he will do what even a six year at a cake walk knew to do: Thank those who gave it. Be gracious to those who say you shouldn't have it and now go do something to deserve it.

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Full Circle

From 1983 - 1986 I wrote a weekly column for a small hometown paper as part of my first professional job out of college. I wrote about my family, my then husband, anything that caught my fancy. Given the speed of today's communication, my obligation to write a weekly column seems quaint. So why now, after (OMG!) 23 years do I take up this public form of expression?

Part of the answer comes from realizing I am talking to myself more and more. The sons who didn't exist during my column years (and would have been more than enough subject inspiration if they had) all grown and gone. I was lucky to have raised two intelligent, curious and talkative boys that conversation was a major part of our time together. And while I am in a wonderful relationship now - that includes many great conversations - there are things I want to comment on that he is just not interested in. (Don't worry, it goes both ways.)

So this is my answer. The original "Small Talk" is a collection of fading news clips archived in a three ring binder somewhere in my basement. This, I realize is more permanent and more fleeting than those missives. And that is why I am at it again.

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