Contributors
7-26-17 Contributors Marley Cash-Powell
As part of the human experience, it appears that everyone has an essential moment of epiphany, a moment of reflection that leads to appreciation for relationships, or more pointedly, people, that have proven unwavering. I figure everyone is owed at least one of these moments, but some of us are blessed with this sensation in multitudes. Myself, I’ve had a handful. There are the few of you out there, you know who you are, who have a long history, even if minimal in frequency, of being the supportive saints in my life, each in your own, critically specific ways. I have friends of faith and creativity, calamity and eccentricity—all contributors, in no small amount, to the experience I continue each day.
The affect is resounding when realization visits me. Consider the boy, who at fourteen or fifteen, left the hollowed-out, painted egg self-portrait in the flower pot on my front porch when I was eleven or twelve years old. Who does that? I thought—not accusatorily, but with impression. The odd ones are my heroes.
Twenty years later, it has become a tradition in this family not to dye, but to paint our Easter eggs. Who does that? Well, we do. And I’ll give you three guesses as to why? Here’s a hint: it’s probably the same reason why there is a Webster’s Vocabulary Skill Builder sitting on my desk.
Holding a cigarette between his toes, while strumming the acoustic guitar across his crooked-knee, he sang silly songs all stanzas starting with the same syllables, as I looked at the posters on the walls. This guy.
In the years after social media became readily available, alliteration challenges began between us, long threads of consonance and rhyme saturated with sarcasm and humor. Then, WordsWithFriends, challenging me to search, sort, unscramble, and assemble words like well-oiled machines. Secretly, Google has become my best friend, but don’t tell him that. How many times has he sent me running to define an unfamiliar word to unravel his clever context?
“The Mellifluous Marley!” He once commented on a poem I posted, and me, straight to Google:
“mel·lif·lu·ous (m?'liflo?o?s), adjective
- (of a voice or words) sweet or musical; pleasant to hear.”
Not just a fancy consonance alliteration from this clever friend, but one which means everything to the striving poet-to-be, and more than most can imagine, if they fail to search the authentic meaning like I did, per my friend’s conditioning.
As I said, “contributors, in no small amount, to the experience I continue each day.”
Consider your own life, you might be surprised to see how your character has been influenced by people you respect, in similar small, yet resounding ways. Smile on these instances, friends, these are the human experiences that tend to codify towards life’s end. Live them and love them now, and frequently, time and time again.
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