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| A Map of Walden Pond |
Dad... as I am now in my 40s, and I know "life is hard" I accept your foibles and your delusions.
But really... what was wrong with "Marcus David Schmidt?"
Nothing of course, but that wasn't the point.
I arrived here, finally, in Concord, because I guess I expect it was my destiny.
If there is such a thing. My plan is to hang this old map of Walden Pond Dad left me in the left display window.
Dad always said it was his destiny... to leave the rat race and his life in the robotics lab. He did to take up farming.
A parent's destiny becomes a child's identity, however.
No longer simply Marcus. I'm Henry.
When I saw the shop was for sale, I thought, well, might as well. I'm not going to save the world from the wreckage of digital anarchy, anyway. But if a few artists are encouraged, at the very least that is something.
I'll put the two typewriters in cozy places -- one near the front window, with that little wooden table the previous owner had piled with receipts and tax documents and a wooden roll desk chair.
The other I want closer to me, here in the back, should I need it. I'll have it out front of the counter, though, to share.
It's a gimmick, and a sad one it's true, to name a shop in Concord "Henry David's Art and Paper," I know. But it is true anyway, and what other name should I choose?
Henry sounds like he is right where he should be in his 40s, psychologically speaking. His inner identity is formed but malleable. He still has work to do before he fully accepts/rejects his history.
ReplyDeleteParents with passion DO bend their offspring: witness the occupations of the children of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and of crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.
Henry is calling his return to Massachusetts and hanging the Walden Pond map on the wall of his shop his destiny. I suspect it is more than that. Although Henry was frustrated by his father, he also yearns to resolve that conflict.