Tag Archives: parents

Little James Dean & Mr. Hop Hop

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Last night in Catholic Cemetery in Savannah, while my dog walked me under a luminous golden crescent moon and a breeze that prompted a desire to sleep in the cemetery, I suddenly stumbled upon a stuffed animal bunny that was face down on the ground. Looking slightly discarded, I gathered that one of the groundskeepers, while mowing, must’ve bumped him from his station. As I held him and scanned around, I knew right away where he belonged. This is what I do on my night patrols. I rescue and reunite grave site objects with their proper owners at no charge. As you can see, he’s seen better days, but before he was ejected from his post, he’d been looking out after his pal and being near for a very long time. He said as much! “Shannon Scott, Stuffed Animal Whisperer.” He reminded me of my own favorite stuffed animal, Justin, who was a polar bear puppet that I received for opening up a saving’s account when I was barely older than James. Justin had the same shiny black bead eyes, that to me, looked like licorice candy. I loved that stuffed animal. He wasn’t a cheap Chinese make either. Old school Taiwan synthetics! He was like my first real pet even if purely imaginary. We slept together and I loved being able to express myself with him through his puppet aspect. Some of my childhood was very lonely and internalized and Justin did seem a friend and gave me comfort. He was probably also the original source of me doing character voices. Many a depressed child has been saved by such creature companions. So yes, there was no way, haggard as this bunny was, that I was about to leave him in such a discarded state! Justice prevails!

I am used to seeing children’s graves and know that Pre-Penicillin, 1928, they were the rule of cemeteries and the majority of them went unmarked. Even so, I am never used to seeing them. The feeling is always a wide pan of gut filled emotions. You always hear the ever truthful cliche, “There’s nothing worse for a parent than losing a child.”  My response would be, “no there is nothing worse for a parent.” Made more grueling by the understanding that part of the future has died at the same time. All the same, I picked up the bunny and put him back where he belonged and I took this photo in the darkness and when I saw it later, it was as if he was looking up at me in his tatters with a grateful smile and I saw Justin all over again. And because I cannot truly speak to James or bring him back from the dead or talk to this bunny, I just felt I had to make something more of it than the picture and this little biddy came out. I am not a parent, but its deaths like these that make me hope for a God most of all and that these children like James, who died so young, are in his bosom and that they all have stuffed animals to keep them company. For you James, a much-beloved son…


Little James Dean Wise!
Who’s your friend with the beady eyes?
A funny looking bunny!
Who does he now spy?
Tis’ I, Tis’ I!
But I’m only passing by!
Tonight’s not my time to die
No, but how sad your burial belies
That sweet boyish face
Primed for life’s great race
I had to pause in my mortal haste
And ponder what made you stop?
When I found Mr Hop Hop
Guarding your grave like his den
Faithful toy friend to the end
I thought I heard him say,
“Better here than the world of men.”
— Shannon Scott

Photo By Shannon Scott (C) 2019

 

Private After Hours & The Fantasy Novelists

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“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”  — J.R. Tolkien

So I got a hit on my new chat messenger on my website from a gal named Shannon. Call me vain if one must, but I always take that as a sign for something good and as I’d just created the messenger to do more personalized customer service in real time with clients, I felt like we were off to a good start. And as the universe would spell cast it in this case, this Shannon was also a storyteller and would come to find out, she was the highly published fantasy novelist, Shannon Mayer.
http://www.shannonmayer.com

Apparently she and fellow fantasy-paranormal author, K.F. Breene had traveled quite a ways to Savannah in search of making our fair town their fairest of them all muse for a mutual book project for younger readers. Shannon had traveled from Canada and Ms. Breene from San Francisco. They were dead set on escaping with me on a Private Bonaventure Cemetery After Hours Tour to learn about the place through the eyes of a fellow bard. Which yes, as a writer in my own right, I’m always made curious by those in particular who do it for a living and have made a career of it. Just a little quick research online showed that these women certainly had and made me feel all the luckier that they’d chosen Savannah as a “source” destination and that I might in some manner of my own, might come to impact them with storytelling in Bonaventure.
http://www.kfbreene.com

As a teen, I was weaned early on C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia,  Terry Brooks’
Shannara books, Anne McCaffrey‘s Dragonriders of Pern series but in later teen years seemed to follow fantasy more through comic books like Elfquest and a host of others that I enjoyed but their titles I’ve honestly forgotten even though I recall coveting them as special favorites. In my own character shaping course, I stopped short of full-on nerd-dom with playing Dungeon’s & Dragons, but friends and I did 24-hour marathons with Telengard and other Commodore 64 & 128 fantasy games. After Tolkien’s mainline books, I felt I’d graduated and left all of that behind for philosophy and non-fiction and really never looked back. So yes, fantasy culture defined me and was more intrigued to meet these 2 women authors. I confess I was a bit nervous too as I’d mostly just spied their book covers online and wondered how much of my tour would have appeal to them. I knew at the very minimum, I couldn’t lose on sharing the connection that Bonaventure has to Harry Potter himself and that they were the perfect audience for it obviously. Very few Potter fans know about it which is why I like to covet it so much! Its only for those who have earned the knowledge through their quest! Hah! Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.

I think I was most surprised that they were both so completely normal and were just a couple of uber-talented moms who wrote about things that were opposite of them. I forget about that at times. I’m one of those writers who only write about their own life experiences. I forget that’s a thing that others do. Obviously, their lives influence their works but its one of those things where they go polar opposite in terms of what they create. And granted, a lot of fiction or fantasy writers look just like everyone else. I mean I didn’t really expect them to be wearing cloaks and walking with staffs but I was particularly thankful neither reeked of patchouli.

In the end, although Shannon’s allergies were on full tilt and K.F. had to shoot a live stream video for a book club while on the tour, we had a perfect weather night and covered a lot of material, particularly the secret society stuff which “Fantasy” as a genre certainly owes some credit. I really look forward to seeing what they end up creating together and whether or not I recognize shades and nuances of Bonaventure!

K.f. Breene “There are a couple types of storytellers – those who hide in their closets or other dark spaces with a bottle of wine and their computer (me), and those who have the gift of voice. Shannon Scott is the latter. In days of old he could’ve been a treasured bard. Or he might’ve traveled from city to city relaying the news to a hungry crowd. He certainly would’ve always had a rapt audience, as he does now. He was interesting and exciting, often times poignant, and once made me tear up (no easy feat). If you get a chance to take a tour with this crew, do it!”