Ten Things
There’s a discussion currently ongoing over at the Fountain Pen Network, entitled “Ten Things I’ve Done (That You Probably Haven’t).” Apparently it’s an Internet meme or some such thing. Some of the responses were quite interesting, so I figured what the hey, I should participate in an Internet meme at least once in my life. In no particular order, then, here’s my list:
- Deciphered five-thousand-year-old jar sealings dating from the reign of the first king of Egypt (or possibly his predecessor), made when written language was still a new idea.
- Read the Story of Sinuhe in the original hieratic.
- Produced a Master’s thesis, which should have taken most of a year, in three weeks. (And graduated. And impressed the heck out of the committee. AND it wasn’t because I’d procrastinated.)
- Learned the art of bonsai from an American master, in the process working with trees now on display at the Morikami Museum and the National Arboretum.
- Won a university fiction-writing award without entering.
- Nearly perished of hypothermia in July (in the northern hemisphere, south of the Arctic Circle).
- Flew less than twenty feet above the Florida Everglades in a Cessna 172 (as a passenger), startling the heck out of several alligators.
- Aged eleven, gave an impromptu anatomy lesson following the accidental partial vivisection of my arm. My audience was the P.E. instructor, a former Marine, who nearly fainted.
- Learned from, and served as principal demonstration dummy for, a martial arts instructor who some years before had been resoundingly flunked out of high school by my father.
- Met Mr. Rogers. (I was four at the time; I remember little other than that he was every bit as nice as he seemed on TV.)
I should probably elaborate on some of those, but I won’t. I have a comment section. Interested parties may ask.