Shade of the Morning Sun

The White Room

Before you can receive support from the Give Way Initiative you must answer these three questions:

1) What did you dream of when you were younger?

2) If you failed in achieving these dreams, why was that? What happened?

3) What are you willing to do to achieve your dreams before it is too late – if you receive the 100,000 dollars Church Universal provides as part of the Initiative?

—

Your answers:

1)

2)

3)

—

Additional comments:


Marcus, no—just NO. 

We agreed to a meeting because I needed to understand why you apparently want to play favorites with me for a golden ticket to your ‘Give Way’ lottery. 

Because Deborah said that you had promised to do exactly that. Instead I sit here in your goddamn morgue-like waiting room with a piece of paper like the rest of the beggars. 

Your secretary said you had agreed to a personal meeting, and you even fucking texted me yourself that you were in today. So you knew I wanted to talk—face to face—about why you apparently want me to join up. 

You also knew it’s because I am not even clear if I want to be a part of any of it!

If you really want us to be closer as a family, after you married my mom, you just failed spectacularly, buster. I could have filled this form out online instead of flying all the way to your LA version of Tyrell HQ. 

Yeah, you can ask me about that reference, if we ever see each other again … 

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CARRIE, 11 JULY 2015

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Cover photo by Imani Bahati on Unsplash

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18

Thanks to Maggie and Adelaide for giving their own answers to these questions here and here. Feel free to share your thoughts below or own your own blog (and ping me).

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Comments

8 responses to “The White Room”

  1. Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan Avatar
    Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan

    I have answers to the questions. I don’t want or need monetary compensation. It would be freely given.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Marcus Avatar
      Christopher Marcus

      Would would the answers be? 🙂

      Reply
      1. Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan Avatar
        Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan

        I read this probably out of context, so my answers stand alone. How about I write a separate blog dealing with this? My answers are, like me, quirky and complicated. 🙂

        Reply
        1. Christopher Marcus Avatar
          Christopher Marcus

          I would love to read a full post on that topic – from you! And I will, of course, link to it here, if that is okay?

          Reply
          1. Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan Avatar
            Maggie, Prime Minister, Slowjamastan

            Absolutely! I’ll work on it this morning. Promise.

  2. Christopher Marcus Avatar
    Christopher Marcus

    I was very much in doubt if I should do this particular story. First of all because it is hardly a story, more like flash fiction. Second because I am in doubt if it can stand alone, like all my stories are supposed to. But I will leave that to you.

    The pros were tempting, though. Because, really, isn’t this a series of questions all of us are afraid to answer – even if we actually got the means to realize our dreams, without any catch (as there obviously is in this case, for Carrie)?

    I would say that I am somewhat afraid of confronting such questions myself. My life has hardly been a smooth journey until now, and while I can and will blame some of my past failures on circumstances beyond my control, some of it is also my fault. I could have responded differently to adversity. I could have made different choices. And the question is if I get a chance to set it right, ever?

    Anyway, I will give my own take on this , but later – in another personal commentary, or on my Facebook writer profile. For now what is important is of course if YOU feel like sharing your answers? What if you could get some money to realize an important dream that had been languishing? What would that be? I hope some of you will feel like sharing about this, admittedly very personal, matter. Maybe here. Maybe in a blog post – just remember to throw a link in the comments.

    That’s all for now. Next week I will begin to wrap up this sequence where Carrie is confronting her stepfather (and mother) in LA. But I feel I might do a story about Michael and Jon on the home front first. How is Jon, the no-nonsense cop, handling his autistic son over the weekend and without any help? That might be a good idea for a story – I sure have some ideas based on personal experience here! (And let me know if you have any preferences for which character I should focus on!)

    The soundtrack for this story is probably something only people as old as I will appreciate, but the title of course refers to KLF and their final electronica album “The White Room”. There’s also a weird happening associated with that album about the KLF staging an event where they burn money bills – a million British pounds! I’m not really sure how much sense this symbolism makes in conjunction with the little story above, but I felt myself oddly attracted to reading about the happening. And, of course, to listening to some music from my youth. It happens a lot 🙂

    See if you can make any sense of it, or provide your own musical suggestion for this one.

    I will see you next week! Take care out there!

    Chris

    Reply
  3. Adelaide Dupont Avatar
    Adelaide Dupont

    Tyrrell HQ – doesn’t that come from BLADE RUNNER? [either the original or the Director’s Cut].

    My dreams were about anti-poverty and anti-corporal punishment. I wanted to create an income stream and create lunches – like chicken sandwiches and salads. To do this I would write and enter quiz shows and march in parades.

    My other other dream was about a farm house in the Fenlands or a forest.

    I failed because the personal connection to whom I was closest moved away and there was a lot of grief and trauma. I had hoped to have corporal punishment banned in my region and my country. I did not work with the politicians and the parents.

    Also there was another bigger and more powerful impetus which drove my activism and advocacy.

    I have already a similar amount in a term deposit. I would like to duplicate it and make it grow. I found out about microdonations through places like Kiva and GoFundMe.

    It was said of me that I was good at three things

    Cleaning up messes
    Making speeches

    [though I ended up making messes and cleaning up speeches]

    and the other thing I was good at was fundraising.

    I would work on my eight-book series and make a website.

    I would help children and families find safe spaces.

    [and it might be well to split and/or budget – self-determination].

    I would use the money to support so many Substacks and other longform opinion gathering places

    And unknown writers; musicians; artists; theatre and opera and comedy.

    My forest would have carbon credits.

    And the water and the air would be clean.

    Thinking about some of the Sustainability Development Goals and my core values.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Marcus Avatar
      Christopher Marcus

      Yup – Blade Runner (all versions). 😀

      Thanks for sharing your honest story. I really, really appreciate that. Do you mind if I ask what that book-series is about? And is it something you have started?

      Reply

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