… has just come in. It is from Cashel.
I opened my mailbox last night to find a three-page letter from Cashel. Of course, it is three pages because his writing is so HUGE. However, he has stayed within the lines very very well. Getting a letter from Cashel is, to me, like winning the Lottery. That is the only way to explain the excitement.
Here is the letter, in its entirety.
Dear Auntie Sheila, This morning (and last night) I saw a big thunderstorm. I thought it would inspire you to make a book about nature and storms. Now for the details: I was on the bus talking to a new friend about what would happen if lightning struck a termite mound. We thought lightning struck Whataburger! It turned out I was wrong. So then we started talking about what would happen if lightning struck the heating system. Love, Cashel.
That is one of the deepest most profound things I have ever read in my life.
Uhm … “whataburger“? And … what exactly was Cashel “wrong” about? I’m not clear on that. Obviously, these are eternal questions not really meant to be answered – only contemplated and reflected upon.
And don’t even THINK that I’m not going to write a book about lightning striking a termite mound.
Serious note: This sentence made me cry. “I thought it would inspire you to make a book about nature and storms.” I honestly don’t know how I can bear it. The love, the essence of Cashel, the REALITY of Cashel … it cuts me like a knife. Makes me cry.
Humorous note: I sense some Trotskyite attitudes in Cashel’s fantasizing about lightning striking “the heating system”.
Hi, I have been waiting silently for Cashel’s letter to you to arrive…. Anyway, Friday evening Cashel called me to get your address. He took down all the information himself so I wasn’t too sure if the letter would actually make it. What a beautiful image I have in my head…you with a hand-written envelope from Cashel. Enjoy! Mum
Oh Mum. :) What a good little boy.
//Humorous note: I sense some Trotskyite attitudes in Cashel’s fantasizing about lightning striking “the heating system”. //
Heh. Children of the world unite against fascist climate control!
Whataburger was gourmet cuisine in Tallahasee. OK, I exaggerate, but it sometimes felt that way, and saying that does give one a sense of the place.
“I was on the bus talking to a new friend about what would happen if lightning struck a termite mound.”
I could just read that sentence over and over and never be rid of the joy of how utterly adorable it is.
How much would I have loved to have participated in that conversation. I think it would be heaven on earth to sit with Cashel, and seriously discuss lightning and termite mounds.
I imagine that if lightning struck a termite mound it would produce something like a fulgurite – a jagged, glassy tube made when lightning melts the material it passes through.
Wow. You learn something new every day. Jon – I have never heard of “fulgarites” before in my life.
If Cashel and his bus friend could figure out how to make lightening INTENTIONALLY hit a termite mound, they could market it and become exterminator millionaires. PS I think he was “wrong ” about lightening hitting whataburger. I feel whataburger must have been spared.
I came across it while studying geology. You sometimes come across fulgurites in sandstone, the preserved relics of lightning strikes that took place hundreds of millions of years ago.
beth:
That was my thought too – but I wasn’t quite sure: that perhaps it LOOKED as though the lightning hit Whataburger, and yet … it did not.
I love this part of the letter:
“Now for the details:”
Jon –
I am totally going to tell Cashel all about these things in my return letter to him. It could be the sort of thing he would totally latch onto.
I love the letter because it is so unbelievably MALE. You know? Lightning strikes a Termite Mound, a Burger Joint, and then a Heating System. Brilliant.
I also love that Cashel says he’s on the bus talking to a “new friend”. Someone he’s just met that obviously he’s taking a liking to, and that shares the same interest in lightning.
Wow.
Alex – I know, like: “heating system”?? what??
I love the “new friend” thing, too. Like: who is this person??? After his traumatic experience with the girl-bully on the bus, I am pleased that he has a new friend with whom he can bond about natural disasters.
“Now for the details” cracks me up on many levels. First, because the boy IS a WALKING detail. Second, because he feels the need to PREP you for the upcoming details. Like, WHOA! Details about to happen. You might want to take a seat for this…. I love it.