Small promise spirals into a conspiracy of deceit....
In the mail arrives a manila envelope which contains a journal with a letter of instructions pasted to the front. As I read the instructions, it becomes apparent that this is a chain letter cloaked as a school project from a nine year old cousin in Atlanta. The roost here is to fill out one page detailing some aspect of the geography of your the state that you reside in. Then, send it to another friend, family member in another state. The person who possesess the journal on May 15th sends it back to the nine year old cousin in Atlanta. So, the hope here is that the journal reaches all 50 states.
Oh, one more thing. You are suppose to send a postcard to the cousin at the same time you send the journal to the next....
In hind sight, I should have sent that journal right back. But, I kept it hoping that Stella would fill it out. My procrastination combined with her resistance left the journal in a stack of junk mail, kids art work and homework for over three weeks. I carried the guilt around in my burden sack of guilt. Finally< I rallied and completed the page. I described how I commute to work in a subway which tunnels under a river to the island on Manhattan. I even copied a google map adding a red line to show my route.
I then took the journal to work and gave it to my friend Paul who lives in New Jersery. He took it home and once again the journal found it self it the pile of procrastination.
Meanwhile, the mother of the kid cousins begins prodding me in the passive aggressive method of Facebook.
Wayne, Myles has not recieved any post cards...did you send it. The prodding post arrive about every ten days and the burden sack of guilt broadens its girth.
When I ask Paul, if he sent it. He responds with a wisp of shame, ummm-no. Now, he rallies and together we come up with a plan to advance this journal by getting co-workers to write up a page about their home state. And you see, the conspiracy reaches adolecsents.
