Ah gentle readers, stroll with me for a moment down Colour Me Stupid Avenue and let me tell you what Yours Ever Faithfully has been up to.
I have a friend and colleague I greatly admire – a superb poet and keen wit. Even though I’m pretty sure he would not mind my using his real name, I’m going to call him Richard instead. Richard has had a problem with his weight for as long as I’ve known him. That basically is all you need to know about him for the purposes of this story. That, and he has the sweetest, most resonant voice in all of creation. See what happened was, I was asked to read (along with two of my sister poets) at an award ceremony for Marty Gervais when he won the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. As I was waiting to go up the the mike, I heard what I thought was Richard talking to someone behind me. I turned, we made brief eye contact, but nope, it wasn’t him. So I turned back around and remarked to The Mister, “I didn’t think two people on this planet could have that voice, you know, since Rod Serling passed away.” He turned around and then responded, “You’re right! That guy sounds just like Richard!”
No doubt you’ve already figured out where I’m going with this, haven’t you, clever readers? Yes, of course it was Richard, only a pared down version of Richard. He’d decided to get fit a few months prior to the awards ceremony, and I honestly didn’t even recognize him! And I only discovered my error a few weeks ago when I read with him at the public library. The other day I apologized by email, told him he must have thought me so arrogant to not even say hi to him and Marty’s shin-dig, but that I hope he took it as a compliment that I didn’t recognize him. He was sooo gracious about it and said that happens to him all the time now! Even his father, who’d been out of town for five months and didn’t know about Richard’s plan to lose weight, was stunned to see his son, minus 80 pounds.
That though, was only my first faux pas. The second one was potentially more serious, but time has gotten away from me, dear readers. Please join me again (soon!) for another amble down Colour Me Stupid Avenue.
