Who I Am: Earl

My mother always said, "Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are." I've found, over a long amount of time where I thought she was just batty, that my mother was right. You friends tell something very important about you, so I'm going to tell you about my friends that you will be better able to know me.

I struggled for a long time with the style that I want to write this piece in, and I've found that some of my best writing comes out in letters, so I'm going to make this series as if they are letters I'm writing to the person I'm writing about.

Here goes:

Earl,

You're a very tall man. I'm sure you know that, but I have to tell you that upfront because it was my first impression of you at Kath's New Years Eve Party last year. I believe I even said as much, in a kind of stupid, slightly spaced out, tone of voice: "You're tall."

You grinned.

It was when you grinned that I noticed the second thing about you: You have a grin that could infect a room of funeral goers and make them smile, at least a little. Unlike what you see with many people these days, your grin almost always seems unforced, and 100% genuine. I love that about you.

You know, Earl, that I feel you have a heart of gold. I've said as much. This is another one of your endearing traits, but unlike the others, this one sort of worries me.

Let me explain.

Sometimes, when I think about the kind of person you are, versus how the world seems to actually work, I worry that you're going to get taken advantage of, in some way. I sometimes worry that you don't realize that not everyone is so very open-hearted as you are, and I can see that causing you a lot of pain in the future. I hope that I'm wrong, and that this never happens. In fact, I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Something I like about you, Earl, that other people might not realize is that you think through what you're going to say before you say it when it's about something important. What this does is that it makes your comments worthwhile, interesting, and intelligent.

So, Earl, that's how I see you. A friendly, thoughtful giant, with a heart of gold and a grin that goes on forever. I hope you don't mind that I shared my thoughts with the world.

~Jeremiah

Well, that's Earl. I picked him first out of everyone because all I really have to say about his is good things, and that makes this easier to write. I'm not saying I have a ton of bad things to say about everyone else, just that Earl has the least, I think. I guess we'll see.

Is there anyone in particular that would like me to feature them in next Tuesday's "Who I Am?"

Harry Potter

On Sunday, Maria bought me the latest Harry Potter book as an early anniversary present. I started reading it around eight that evening, and by four the next morning I was done with all but the last fifty pages, which I would have been done with, but I wanted to save something for the next day. I'm funny that way, I supposed.

The writing in this book is probably the best so far, and it's probably my favorite out of all of them, so far. I hope the next one comes out soon.

Just wanted to keep this short since there's so much livejournal drama going on right now about it.

Good storytelling.