BRANCHES OF GLORY

The first Manic Monday post I wrote was about Yellow. I mentioned fighting “inner” demons with my friend Brooke and people seemed somewhat interested in more of that story. The following is an attempt to explain and will chronicle the importance of branches, today’s Manic Monday topic, in our journey.

If you have ever been on the Sarah Lawrence College campus (which I am pretty sure that few people who read this blog have been except those that I know about) you know that it is a beautiful fairy land of charm and wonder. It is the perfect setting for imaginative, albeit crazy, minds to romp and play. It is also a place, as are all college campuses, full of people slowly but surely approaching adulthood. The things that swirl in such developing minds can be somewhat, strange.

Brooke and I never did well with the whole growing up thing, we’re a little more successful now but as 30 quickly approaches we’ll see how this toughness lasts. We had a lot of demons. They would follow us around and show up at seemingly normal times like taking the train to the city before spring break, or driving through the hills of Bronxville. We knew that these demons had something to do with our future success as people and that we would, at some point, have to confront them.

They were in full force one night while we were sitting in Marshall Field, the place on campus where the mystical always happens. Once I got trapped in a dark stairwell there but that is another story. Brooke and I were peacefully minding our own business under a tree when a car started slowly screeching past us. The car was scary. It swung around and started coming back the other direction. We knew it was time to run. Unfortunately, there were demons all throughout the field. Grasping on to one another we slowly made our way through the fray and came out unscathed on the other side. However, we knew that it wasn’t over.

One day in April after a heavy storm had ransacked campus blowing branches hither and yon, we decided it was time to face our demons and gain the upper hand. We were about to graduate and we knew we couldn’t leave before settling the score. We armed ourselves with the implements of warriors. The Dragons, a forked branch with two dragon heads made of leaves rested with Brooke. I had The Flag, a branch with leaves spread out like a fan, and a cute little bug that lived on it named Homey, our mascot of the day.

We took the dragons and the flag and went back to Marshall Field to show our demons that we weren’t afraid of the life that was to come (although we were terrified). We wanted to assert that we would be strong and protect ourselves from demons trying to keep us down. We had to be victorious. When we got back to Marshall Field, the scene of the initial onslaught, we found it to be incredibly peaceful and still. We looked everywhere for the demons but they wouldn’t appear. Our strong willed determination had been enough to stop them from rearing up and trying to take us down. They knew that we could not help be victorious and chose to stay home. We walked around the would-be-battlefield, knowing we had won but not quite believing it. Then we saw them. Two huge branches had been ripped from the trees in the storm. One was about 5ft long, twisted, gnarled, and came to a fine point. There were no branches coming off of it. It was the Demon Stick, dark and evil, and all that remained of our foes. Then, there was what could only be described as a larger version of our flag, About 6ft high and 4ft wide, a huge part of a tree had been blown off. It was full of leaves and life. It was a perfect juxtaposition to the Demon Stick. These two branches symbolized the good and the evil we would face and we hoisted them up in victory and began to carry them back to our dorm on the other side of campus.

Triumphantly, we set our new flag and the demon stick up against the window of our first floor common room, much to the shock of the people inside. The Flag stood up in the center of the window and the Demon Stick lay across it diagonally forming some kind of sick and twisted coat of arms. We stepped back and looked at them with pride. We were jubilant because we felt we could take on anything at that point. We couldn’t wait until the next morning to take a picture of our spoils.

Unfortunately, the groundskeepers took our Flag and Demon Stick away long before we woke up in the morning and they were lost. We only have the memory of these spoils of war against the dark side. At least we know that nothing can touch us know, for we have conquered our demons. The branches of light and dark carried us through.

This is “Guess That Song” week. Let’s see what our first five will be

1. What happened to/ The world we knew/ When we were dreaming, scheming/ Whiling the time away.

2. Megan/ She don’t eat bacon/ She never killed a sweet innocent little piggy to get bacon.

3. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know/ Sometimes I feel like checking out/ I wanna get it wrong. Ultraviolet (more commonly known as Light My Way) by U2. Identified by Jaclyn

4. Anthony walked to his death because he thought he’d never feel this way again/ If he goes back to the house then things would go from bad to worse/ What could he do? If You're Feeling Sinister, Belle and Sebastian. Identified by Monica

5. When I see you sky as a kite/ As high as I might I can’t get that high. High, The Cure. Identified by Brooke and Monica