"Susan, it is YOUR story....

not his!"

My sister Wendy stated last night over a bowl of my homemade chili.

"But it such a good story!" I replied.

The "story" she was talking about was one that I wrote about here.

This past Saturday was not only my son Phillip's 22nd birthday, but it was also the day that the William Eggleston Exhibit opened at the Chicago Art Institute.

And my fire about the "story" was further stoked when I went to the Art Institute’s website to confirm that the William Eggleston exhibit was still opening on the 27th...and I read:

”William Eggleston will be making a RARE appearance on the 27th to sign his new book.”
What!

It IS meant to be!!!

I told you...YAHOO!!

My mind started racing....

we are going and I am bringing my Red Cube No. 9 and a little book that I will put together with all of the comments from the Red Cube site and the photographs that Phillip submitted as part of the assignment for our cube and I am having Mr. Eggleston sign the cube;

and I will introduce Phillip to him;

and I will give him the book I made;

and by looking at that book he will immediately see Phillip’s talent;

and Phillip will become “discovered” overnight and his life will be filled with happiness, money, sunshine and rainbows.

But that is not what happened.

Phillip told me early last week that he really did not want to go.

I insisted and quite frankly demanded that he HAD to go.

So he went.

And he was not happy about it.

He did not want me to give Mr. Eggleston the “book” that I had made.

He actually forbid me to give it to him.

He did not want to meet Mr. Eggleston, so he did not.

He did not even want to be at the Art Institute.

What he wanted to do was...

walk to Central Camera to buy some film - which he did;

have dinner at Big Bowl - which we did; and

spend time in Chicago, with his out-of-town girlfriend, alone, not with his Mom and her boyfriend in tow.

So my sister, Wendy's statement around the dining room table last night, was...oh so right.

It has been my story ever since I found the cube.

And I have loved telling that story over and over...

sucking my audience in with all the parallels between Phillip and Red Cube No. 9.

And although I still believe those parallels are true, the cube that I found is MY story, not his.

His story...

well Phillip will have to write his own.

as for me i need to leave his writing alone