The Marocharim Experiment

Up the Ironies, c. 2002

If I Weren't Writing…

I’m still writing… so much for a career shift.  LOL.

“You should be lucky you’re doing something you like,” a friend told me last night.  I think I belong to that minority of people who do actually make a living out of something they like doing, but when you’re pushing 25, the quarter-life crisis leads you to believe that you can be doing something else.  More than that, I think I belong to that minority of people who have finally found their calling.

The beginning of the rest of my life doesn’t have to end up with me at my mid-twenties, a date with destiny, and copy.  Or fiction, or prose, whatever.  There are lots of things I could still explore simply because I can.  I don’t want to go to my 20th high school reunion and have this going on:

High school friend: Hi Marck!  What are you up to?  I’m running my own company, I have three kids, and I’m going to a cruise to Moldova.

Me: Hey!  Errr… I’m writing, I’m on my second book, and I’m shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year.  I don’t have a company, I don’t have kids, and I’ve just eaten all my manuscripts ‘coz I’m poor.

High school friend: That’s fantastic!  What else are you up to?

Me: Fuck you, a pox upon your company, AIDS be upon your kids, and I hope you get raped at Moldova, bitch.

High school friend: Hey, that’s not very nice…

Me: I’LL SEE YOUR ASS IN HELL!

All apologies to the good people of Moldova.

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Reading Through Grandmother's Cataracts

If my grandmother were still alive, she would have turned 97 in a few days.  In her late eighties, she was confined to a wheelchair, although she made a lot of effort in trying to stand and walk on her own even months before she died.  At the twilight of her life, Lola’s passions were simple: watching her great-grandchildren play by her feet, fruits in her oatmeal, and paying attention whatever I was watching on TV.

She was particularly happy when I was tuned in to wrestling; I’ll bet my last peso that you’ve never seen a more enthusiastic 92-year-old fan of Shawn Michaels.

I wonder if Lola – who never learned to read or write – would have been proud of who I turned out to be.

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