Unlocking the Vault
Reflecting on a mentor from my past.
My cat Fosse has joined me in the room where I am writing for the sole purpose of using his cat box and really smelling it up in here. A writer’s dream. A friend recently offered me a spot on a local standup show they produce in town. Just for a few minutes. I’m thinking it over. Maybe a good low-pressure way to get back into the swing? Hmmm. It would be on a weeknight but also, VERY close to my home. So, maybe.
Today, I think I was supposed to do another assignment from the Artist’s Way book. let’s see what I’ve got. . . I have to find one piece of encouragement from my past and mail a thank you letter. This is going to be hard.
My Uncle Ron was the very first person that popped into my head. He loved my poem from the 2nd grade. He told me I should continue writing. When I was about to be born, he was ill from appendicitis (so the story goes) and my mom (his closest sibling) asked him to name me. At first, he later told me, he wanted to name me Chase Manhattan Roper but in the final hour, he changed his mind. Ian Chase Roper (yeah, Chase is my middle name) because he felt it was a strong name for a writer and had a hunch that’s the direction I would go one day. After he died, I got to read through his little book where he wrote down his favorite quotes and poems. Stuff from Jim Morrison, Henry David Thoreau - and me. My little 2nd grade poem. I didn’t know he wrote that in there. 7 years later, I find it in there. That’s something he did for him.
I always felt like he really liked my writing. My comedy. My enthusiasm for philosophy and the meta-physical world. So, he encouraged me both in life and after. I’ll try to write this letter of thanks to him tomorrow so that I can have a fresh start. There are only 15 minutes before I have to head out for the day and this letter is going to bring up some FEELINGS. God dammit. Well, here goes nothing.
Time to open up the old vault.