once upon a time a long time ago, i grew up in ohio.
there were friday nights spent at the skating rink, days wasted in suburban malls, weekend drives out to the the country to eat fresh maple candy and angsty teenage conversation spewed over cappuccinos in local coffee shops.
there were also long evenings spent in the high school auditorium, listening to leonard cohen and reciting neruda's love poems. things that teenagers really had no business doing, except we did because we were lucky enough to have ended up in that school with that teacher, james thornton. he told us about ts eliot and ee cummings and put on african music and told us to just move however we wanted. after long days of algebra and history, he cracked open our worlds and dared us to explore.
those hours spent in that room with him and 10 of my peers, singing, dancing, playing, sometimes just breathing; those are my best memories.
to come back to ohio, over a decade past...
now an adult. some things the same, so much different. winding roads with shady trees giving way to paved suburban strip malls.
seeing james. older, a survivor. still so sweet, full of quips and boundless wisdom.
finally, adult to adult. understanding so much more of what this world had in store for all of us.
no one ever said it was going to be easy. especially not him.
ohio. bittersweet at best. flatland paved with memories.
