Philosophy 1

Philosophy 1 Our side-by-side desks were acquainted. Sadly, we were not. Sassy and blond, Tammy Sue was a philosophy freak. Afforded by Macon, Georgia she idolized Julia Kristeva. I idolized Tammy Sue. Near the end of the semester at NYU, desperately intrepid, I dragged my suddenly torpid legs towards Tammy Sue and blurted out a line I had just read; “Metaphor fashions a doorway from language, leading out”. Tammy Sue regarded me. Cringing, I anticipated painful rejection. “Oh, Eric” emerged from her precious lips. “That is so CLEVER!” she drawled; drawing out her words to last, it seemed, forever. “We” lasted two months; then the magic of that line wore off. “Eric, you’re so sweet” she began. Unhinged by the dagger in my heart, I heard only her finale, the Lord Tennyson classic, “I am a part of all that I have met”; then a kiss and goodbye; a fitting close for philosophy class. Whenever I repeat those words I feel her part in me.