And all through the school
Every creature was stirring
And not eating gruel.
I learned about gruel in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
The cool were restless
And so were the geeks
Awaiting vacation
Which would run for two weeks
Have you ever noticed how two weeks sounds like forever when it’s starting?
So I don’t know if the Masons are going to spend Thanksgiving in Tahoe with Mom’s parents or in Mendocino with Dad’s. Or maybe visiting aunts or uncles. We have a pretty big family, but we don’t see them much except on holidays. I see them more on Facebook than I do in person.
Anyway Mrs. G has this really cool exercise that she has people do on the last day before Christmas break. Everybody gets to play two roles: first you are a little kid–any little kid–sitting on Santa’s lap. Then you are a department store Santa with a different little kid on your lap.
She has us warm up first by being a bratty little kid, and then a shy little kid, and then a refugee kid, and then a rich kid, and then a smart kid, and then a sad kid, and then an excited kid. You get the picture. We try out all kinds of kids and no two are the same on stage.
Then she’ll have us try out Santas: a jolly Santa, a burned out Santa, a hungry Santa, a college-kid Santa, an old man Santa, and even a drunk Santa who sleeps in the mission.
When it’s all over, she asks us to say who we believed. I visited the class last year when they were doing this. Amazing as it now seems, I believed Rob. Everything changes. If you don’t believe me, read TALENT.
Write back and tell me what you think.
B. Lynn Goodwin 