Voices in my head

And now for something different.

Plato: So, Ben, I hear you just finished your last final.

Ben: It’s true. Very true.

Plato: How do you feel?

Ben: Like…like I’ve just come out of a cave full of shadows.

Plato: Oh. How…interesting. Would you care to expound on that?

Ben: Not particularly. At this point all I want to do is sleep.

Plato: Wait, a few more questions. What are your plans?

Ben: For right now? Spend the evening reading. [Smiles.] After that, I’ll be busy tying up loose ends at my current job, going through graduation on Thursday and Friday, and scrubbing down the bathroom for a cleaning check on Saturday.

Plato: And next week?

Ben: Well, I start my new internships at the library, one on Monday (working on library technology instruction), and the other on Wednesday (in Special Collections). But they’re top secret, so I’ve already said too much.

Plato: Top secret? In a library?

Ben: Okay, okay, so they’re not top secret, but it doesn’t hurt to inject a little mystery and suspense into your life. Oh, I’ll probably watch National Treasure this weekend, too. Get into the Special Collections mood, that sort of thing.

Plato: Very well. One last question before we head off to catch C.S. Lewis for an interview.

Ben: C.S. Lewis? But he’s dead!

Plato: So am I.

Ben: Oh. That’s right. My bad. Do you mind if I listen in?

Plato: Not at all. And now for that question: how do you feel about Dick Cheney coming to commencement?

Ben: I feel nomadic. No, really, it doesn’t bother me, but I do have to say that the protesters are getting on my nerves. Sure, I don’t agree with all of Cheney’s politics, but this is commencement, for crying out loud. It’s not a political rally. Besides, we’re doing honor to the office of vice president, and respect and prestige are something the White House is rather lacking these days. (Yes, often with good reason, but the point of the matter is that we need strong leaders — moral ones, too, of cousre — and if we keep weakening the office of the presidency, before long it’ll be worth nothing at all. Just puppets on a string.) Hey, what are those parentheses doing there? Those aren’t mine.

Plato: My apologies. We’ll take them out. Do you have anything else to add? Any words of advice?

Ben: Not really. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Plato: Thank you very much. And now we have with us Mr. Clive Staples Lewis, also known as Jack…

I can’t help but comment on the protests, since I think you know that I’m not one who ever protests. I know very many of the protesters and I believe their motives to be just and proper. They have not caused disturbances, nor do they intend to (as far as I am aware). Furthermore, they have invited Ralph Nader to speak at Alternative Commencement precisely because “we need strong leaders.” Nader’s entire life has been a fight against political puppeteers that have attempted–often with great success–to attach their strings to anyone and everyone that can further their causes and/or line their pockets. I learned quite a bit from a documentary about Nader, entitled “An Unreasonable Man.” I highly recommend it.

Oh my goodness. You should turn that into a book. “Conversations with Plato,” or “Conversations with the Great Thinkers” or something like that. Seriously. I’d love to hear what Clive Staples a.k.a. Jack has to say.
Once in middle school I started to write a story that was basically a multi-person dialogue inside my head, with myself as one of the characters. The Beatles were also there, as well as Benny Goodman, and a couple friends of mine from school. Of course they all had hopeless crushes on me. And it was filled with hopeless inside jokes. My friend had done something similar, which is where I got the idea. She had a character named Brickhead.

Okay, to clarify, the Beatles and Benny Goodman had crushes on me, not my friends from school. My friends from school were girls.

National Treasure is not archives - it is pure Hollywood. No archivist in their right mind would EVER let someone pour lemon juice on the Constitution. ACID!!!!! The archives are not as puffed-up and dramatic and as they portray it, but they are wonderful in a nice quiet way. Actually when I worked there, once you get past the public reception area, it feels like hobbit land because they keep the ceilings low to maximize storage space. And there is no secret map on the back of the Constitution…just in case you were wondering.
p.s. To stifle debate just because it makes some people uncomfortable is to stifle the core principles of this country. Also, some would argue the Presidency is getting stronger, not weaker.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195(198924/199024)104:42.0.CO;2-U ( here is an academic article - on the expansion of the presidency)

Michael: True, the protesters weren’t overly obnoxious or in-your-face, and I appreciated that. I guess it wasn’t what the protesters were doing that got on my nerves, necessarily, but rather the undercurrent behind it. But I definitely believe in free speech. I heard that Nader (or perhaps it was someone else at the altcom) made some disparaging comments about the Church, but I do like the sound of his fight against political puppeteering, and I’ll have to check out that documentary. Thanks!

Haley: The hard part is making the characters true to form. My Plato here isn’t much like the real one, I’m afraid. But then again, this isn’t something that research couldn’t fix. I rather like the dialogue format. Socrates, here I come. :) (And I’m very glad that your girlfriends from school didn’t have crushes on you. ;))

mf: LOL, I think pure Hollywood is okay as long as we keep in mind that it’s just that: fiction. I started working in the Special Collections at my library yesterday and I agree — wonderful in a nice, quiet way. So they keep the ceilings low at your archives to maximize storage space? I don’t follow — wouldn’t higher ceilings allow for more storage? :) As for the expansion of the presidency, I don’t think I meant to say that the presidency is getting weaker; instead, I meant that American citizens’ respect for the presidency is getting weaker. Big difference there. :)