I mentioned one of my elementary school nemisses in the last post.
Cynthia alternated last names. She switched back and forth from her birth father’s name, a man who evidently had left her household, and her Mother’s last name. She wasn’t really my nemesis. She just sowed discord and I can only recall two small such examples of this.
Cynthia once goaded me into saying that I didn’t care whether I was in the Science Club, my favorite teacher’s pet project, just to go and report to this teacher I didn’t want to be in it. She also once told me that if I asked God to strike me dead God would oblige me on the spot with a bolt of lightning. I immediately and confidently asked God to do this there and then. “You just wait. He’s going to get you.” she told me as I looked at her in triumph for disproving her bold prediction.
In this and a hundred other ways Cynthia managed to alienate most of her fellow classmates.
What was Cynthia thinking when she did these things? I don’t know. I can only report what I witnessed and what I heard others gossip about her. The same is true for anyone I mention in my writings.
Gary told me this morning that Sara Horner told him yesterday that I said he was filing for the first District seat to thwart an effort to have him removed. Yet, this is not what Sarah reported in yesterday’s news story: This is what she wrote:
Harry Welty, the red plan’s most public foe, suggested another reason might be to give Glass a second chance on the School Board should he be ousted from his current seat for consulting with an attorney involved in a lawsuit against the board.
“The School Board has made it quite clear they’d like to get rid of him and now they have an attorney strongly suggesting that they can,” Welty said. “Well, good luck removing him now that he might very well have an opportunity to get himself re-elected.”
Glass said that theory was completely off-base.
“Harry is a creative writer. He likes to imagine things; he does it all the time,” he said.
Duluth business director Bill Hanson said the district is still looking into what effect Glass’ potential election to a 1st District seat would have on a board effort to remove him from his At Large seat
According to this story I simply suggested this motivation. I didn’t hear Sarah’s interview with Gary, let alone record it, but Gary’s recollection is that she told him I said that this was indeed his motivation. Gary was a little put out with me as a result and so his characterization of my writing skills is not surprising. I don’t blame him. I hate to have other people put words in my mouth or attribute motivations to me that they can not know. All they can faithfully report is what they’ve seen or heard.
When I took my first college psychology class with 400 other freshman students the teacher made one comment that has stuck with me. She said that psychology is not the studying of other people’s minds it was the study of their behaviors. Reading minds is a creative exercise at best. Predicting behavior is less so. Anticipating the result of behavior is simply a daily part of life.
My reaction to Cynthia Robinson’s warning that God would strike me down was pretty predictable. Guessing at what I was thinking is less certain but for people who would have done the same thing I did, prove her wrong they very likely have a pretty good idea what was going on in our heads.
I’ve quoted more than Gary’s reaction to Sarah’s goading. I’ve also included Sarah Horner’s quote from about Bill Hanson that followed.
“Duluth business director Bill Hanson said the district is still looking into what effect Glass’s potential election to a 1st District seat would have on a board effort to remove him from his At Large seat”
I’d say that if Sarah was accurately reporting her interview with Mr. Hanson’s it demonstrates that my speculation about the District’s attempt to rid themselves of Mr. Glass was right on target. If not then: GOD PLEASE STRIKE ME DEAD RIGHT NOW!
Whew! I’m still here. OK now God, its not “now” now. Well, I mean its not the now I was referring to before now. Now is a new now. I don’t want you to strike me dead now. OK God? Got that. Not NOW!
Blogger Falibility Note: It turns out that Sarah Horner is 27 not 26 and that Gary Glass did not have to go to the same Internet Data source to learn this not terribly critical piece of information. When she asked him his age (telling him she could find it whether he told her or not) He asked her’s.)
