HOW TO BE ENIGMATIC

Photo by R. Murre

HOW TO BE ENIGMATIC

Discover your alter ego.  Yes, we all have them.  Mine is Vanessa, though now that I've revealed her name, she'll probably change it.  To say she is mysterious would be a vast understatement.  Mostly she appears when needed, for instance, when I'm (trying) to write an erotic poem.  Let me show you how she'll say in her husky whisper.  Or the time she persuaded me to paint my bedroom walls a deep lipstick red and, as if that wasn't enough, insisted I buy red sheets.  She'd read somewhere that the Chinese believe red is the color of love, and that was enough for her.  She has great appetites, for which she puts forth absolutely no apology.  And music has always been her passion and weakness.  Last night as we were sitting outside listening to music at sunset, she demanded that O Mio Babbino Caro be played over and over again.  The reason being, she whispered, was that a cardinal and two robins were singing along.  (And they were, I tell you.)  Then it had to be Pavarotti serenading a chorus of crows with Nessum Dorma, as the full moon began to rise above the orchard.  All in all, thanks to Vanessa, a fine concert.  She knows these things and reminds me, which is all to the good.  But she can also take me down roads I might not have intended to go.  Though, in the end, they usually turn out quite wonderful.  And always, she reminds me--we're only small coins in the hands of Eternity.