A short observation on an object that resonates with me.
Once, in community college back in Dallas, my professor Dr. Mary Northcut gave me an old coin. Ancient. It was a coin used during the reign of Philip II of Macedon–the father of Alexander the Great.
Dr. Northcut would not have known that, as a boy in elementary school, I used to collect old and rare coins. My oldest coin, perhaps, is a three-cent silver coin from before the Civil War. I stopped collecting before I got into middle school and when I got into high school my favorite historical figure became Alexander the Great. I want to name my son, if I ever have one, Alexander–the name means something like, the defender of man.
Dr. Northcut gave me the coin because her class was a film studies class–Film Noir, namely. On the first day of class, Dr. Northcut was having a few troubles with using the computer. I got up and helped her run a DVD she was struggling to play. On my last day of class, after I handed her my final essay, she pulled me aside and thanked me for all my help throughout the semester. Then, she handed me the old bit of bronze.
I’ve added it to my collection–the first new coin in years. I enjoy looking at it–I think of Dr. Northcut, of the Cowboy Bebop DVDs I made a copy of for her, of Alain Delon and Humphrey Bogart, and of Alexander marching across Asia Minor.
a young writer from the lone star state 