Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ears

_{Skull by Midori Harami}

I am not positive--for when my mother was recently queried neither could she seem to recall--but I am pretty sure I performed this time-honored speech from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the annual elementary school talent show. In any case, my mom says I memorized it--for reasons unbeknown to us all now--in the second grade. Ostensibly, I must have done it for a reason or performed it for someone--although that someone could just as easily have been her and her coterie. I also memorized a monologue from Alice In Wonderland in the fourth grade (Alice falling down the well, of course!) in lieu of doing a book report. I remember my mom coaching me, Drama and AP English teacher that she was, so that I really looked like I was falling.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;

But back to the talent show. I remember standing on the stage.

The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interr'd with their bones,

I remember wearing something akin to a toga. And I remember looking out at my audience, the ubiquitous multi-purpose hall in which we all played Bingo Thursday nights and had Spaghetti Fridays during the day.

So let it be with Caesar...The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

I remember Armand Zaharian who preceded me. I remember his trick: stacking quarters on his bent elbow and then catching them in his fist.

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it...

Armand started with two quarters. With grace he caught two quarters in his fist. Then he simply said "three" and stacked one more quarter.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;

Armand caught three quarters in his fist and then stacked four. "Four."

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;

I stood in the wings and rehearsed my lines. "Six."

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know

When Armand reached eight, the sound of quarters rolling on the floor stunned a normally rowdy hall into silence. But Armand simply picked them up and continued. "Eight," he repeated.

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason...Bear with me;

At twelve, Armand finished and quietly left the stage. It was a hard act to follow.

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me

The hall was filled with light. I could see my audience. I took the stage and lifted my arms out to them: Friends, Romans, countrymen.