character study – i

Hello.

I am a green character on a black background. Because I am a single character, my demands are meagre, except when I must call upon my fellow characters to arrange themselves just like this in an arbitrary manner decided upon my man many centuries ago to represent ideas. Characters are a moody bunch at the best of times, and will not often make the effort to please the one who is trying to express something with their help. Many writers can attest to that fact. I wish I could encompass and convey a myriad emotions within my own self, but this desire only brings my attention to my own inadequacy.

I alone cannot do much, save for transform my form from upper and lower case. I don’t have much use for myself, hence I would not expect you to have much use for me, yet you do. In every other sentence, you use me to describe yourself and how you feel. Let me take this opportunity to say that my fellow characters and I are proud to represent you.

A little secret I must share with you: I actually feel very self important when you use me to write. I must come at the beginning of any personal declaration you make about yourself, my fellow characters must eternally follow me.

“I feel really good today!”, you proclaim. “I must be going now.” you declare. “I love you!” you muster up the courage to say. I must confess a little shiver of pride when I am used so very often to refer to any self aware creature that may use this language. In that, I must confess that the stereotype about myself, the letter i, must be true. “I” am the most selfish of the letters and the most self centered, for I feel overly important when I should not.

I am often troubled by these matters, as I should be, for when you are the traditional character used to denote a selfish declaration or perspective, one must also be selfish and introspective to the point of alienating other letters. The few letters I enjoy working with are ’s’, ‘n’ and ‘t’. I do not much trust S, but he is a wily fellow, filled with interesting anecdotes about love, life and salamanders. ‘N’ is a good friend of mine. We are often out together, which may be considered mildly ironic since together we form the word ‘in’. ‘T’ and I also get along famously, although he is a quiet chap and takes his time about expressing an opinion or saying anything much at all, something else that one may not have thought of “T” since he is, after all, the second most used alphabet amongst us. It is a popular misconception. I recall I myself did watch him from afar in the days when I did not know him and gazed in wonder at how outgoing he was, how easily he made friends, as opposed to I, an introspective loner. It is all a show, and I know this now for I know T well. We have spent many a warm summer evening together, drinking beer and enjoying a comfortable silence.

I suppose I have take up enough of your time by now. Surely my musings must bored you, as they eventually do everyone I come in contact with. Even my good friends S, N and T cannot stand my company for long periods alone. I am just that sort of letter. Thank you for listening so far.

Regards,

I (i)

right

Sometimes, “What’s wrong” is an absolutely academic question.

There are times when what matters is whether or not ‘right’ is what it should be, what it once was.

How then, would you answer the concerned query, “What’s wrong?” to the satisfaction of the questioner?