A tale of two RPM(s).

nobody@vox.com(RPM) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:15:50 -0600

Hi there. You may be wondering to yourself..."Hey, how is Philly?"

Well, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea as I am still in Austin, TX.

I might not have mentioned that with my mother's retirement from a large airline, came some nifty flight privledges that let me travel about the world for a fraction of the retail cost. Now mind you, that carries with it a huge stipulation. You fly stand-by. Which during the holidays is akin to trying to board a plane with a machete in your back pocket.

So, hours, and three bumped flights later, I cut my losses, and split. I'll try again tomorrow. Amen, and please pass the vino.

As I was checking my email, I rec'd a quick note from my friend NYCinephile, who remarked on the dfferences in my photos. I laughingly replied, that there are two (RPMs), they were simply a reflection of both. When asked to elaborate, I said, A Tale of Two RPMs.

A tale of two RPMs

So NYCinephile, this one's for you.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.

I know I'm not alone when I say that I have sides, to my personality. In this interactive society we have established, we can choose to be whatever we like to be. We can don the cloak of glamour, we can play the part of the comic or wax poetic. We can be any world of things...that is but a sliver of who we truly are. A reflection, carefully assembled by our experiences, our fears and our insecurities.

That RPM on the right is righteous and rebellious and saucy and clever. She's no shrinking violet. People come to her to fix problems, and she's happy to oblige. She friendly, expressive but also bullheaded and extremely opinionated. She was born of anger, of fear, of suppression and shame. She is the warden that explains any and all things my heart or mind can't make heads or tails of. She is Sydney Carton, in a very liberal sense.

That RPM on the left is the one the wild haired loud mouth to the right was born to protect. She is all softness and intuition and hesitant to speak all that she knows or sees. She can be absurdly naive, a deep well of thought that never comes out of the mouth, but finds freedom on paper. She rarely speaks, but listens always. And never tells. She's wise enough to know that wisdom has no room for logic. She is Charles Darnay, again in a very liberal sense.

And...as in A Tale of Two Cities...couldn't that be said of all of us? Aren't we all a mystery in some sense...perhaps to no one more than ourselves? Damn...I just realized how much I loved that book, all over again.

I hardly think I'm as interesting as any of those characters in the Dickens classic...but my conversation with NYCine, reminded me of the beautiful duality of the human personality. Cool stuff.

Now...I'm off to figure out how the hell to get to Philly. *wonders if Mecca can pull a sleigh...perhaps a sleigh dangling bologna?*

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Blissfully Naked.

A tale of two RPM(s).