Roger Brea or the Need For a Personal Mantra
And how he uses it as a guardian angel
One day when Roger was a brat of 6 or 7 years old, he challenged other kids in his neighborhood to climb a stone tower much taller than they were. A first boy tried it to no avail, a second boy to no avail, and even a third boy to no avail. Finally, Roger tried with the expected result of sitting satisfied and victorious at the top of the tower.
His friends, surprised by the feat that their eyes had just seen, immediately asked Roger how he had managed it and our hero simply answered that he did not know how he had managed it but he knew for sure that he would be able to climb the tower.
The other children on hearing Roger’s last words told him that if this was true then he had cheated and had not won the challenge. Roger replied that in any case entrusting himself to his guardian angel was not cheating and therefore he had won the challenge.
For much of Roger’s childhood his guardian angel had a lot of work to do, and one day, almost on the threshold of adolescence, he was overcome with remorse for never having invited him to a Coke.
Today Roger is a nobody writer on the international and even national scene, although there is some consolation in being a recognized local writer. (It should also be said that in the village live 100 people, seven dogs, three cats, and two writers including him).
However, our writer, now in his middle age, continues to make use of his guardian angel wherever he goes, using him as the ORIGINAL 3-IN-ONE or universal solution to lubricate his soul just as the famous lubricant has for decades effectively lubricated the hinges and locks on the doors of every house in the world.
Of course, considering that guardian angels have always existed from the moment God created all angels; Roger’s guardian angel has evolved a lot in the last decades to become a postmodernist guardian angel.
So, when our writer receives severe criticism for the books he is bringing to the market or when he is criticized by acquaintances and even by close relatives full of envy due to the “irresponsible” writing life he leads; Roger, after invoking his guardian angel, repeats to himself seven times the personal mantra sent by his guardian angel to keep him going with his writing career in the face of half-baked critics and envious and enraged people.
Roger’s Personal Mantra:
“Yeah, man! And you’re the queen of England! Everybody goes for the one who carries the ball! Nobody kicks a dead dog! Anything can be thought of, but who’s a writer? An ass should never be offended by what another ass says….
After repeating his personal mantra seven times in the face of his adversaries’ attacks, Roger is left in glory, and so it is no effort at all for him to give them a casual and slightly ironic smile to finish off the task.
On the way home the only thought that our now grateful writer has locked in his head is not to forget for all the heck of it to invite his guardian angel to a Coca-Cola.
