A Life, -Pear Blossom in My New Life

There is, in many ways, 12 sided dice one could toss, and viddy my life through; like 12 sides of a crystal ball. I don’t altogether identify with Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, however, there are moments I can identify with. More recently, as I finish my classes, “Rosebud” has echoed through my mind. This, I can identify with. There was the moment my mother informed me we were selling our farm in Kentucky, and moving to Alabama. I still remember exactly where I was, and what I was doing when she told me. I was out back of my home across from my bedroom window, near the smokehouse, mending some fence where we had been bottle feeding a calf. That particular moment has been echoing through to me more, and more frequently. We had 330 acres with 8 ponds, a lake, a large creek at least 30-40’ across, and some places 6’ deep. Out front of our home there was a large hill sloping down into a large pond where we would sled in the winters, and a giant halfway rotting oak tree at the top where it had been struck with lightning. There was one lone pear tree in our yard where my mother would collect the fruit to wrap in newspaper; let ripen in our dark, stone pantry in the basement. I have yet to ever eat a better pear. The juice would flow down our chins as we bit into the tender flesh of the fruit. The skin was paper thin, and hardly noticeable.

While I truly relate more to stories such as Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, Dante, William Carlos Williams, or Chaucer there are moments like Rosebud that echo, and ring true for me. I have heard different interpretation on Rosebud, but I believe it signifies the moment that would drastically alter Orson Welles’ life in the film. It’s the moment he is sledding as a happy child in a “normal” life before he is adopted by a rich man setting his course to being Citizen Kane.

Last updated August 04, 2024