We first meet our hero…

So, what kind of guy decides to call himself “Dead Charming” you ask?  Well, let me introduce myself, for this exercise in reciprocal anonymity I’ll just go by DC.  I’m an Aries born in the year of the Dragon and I don’t put much stock in astrology. (I DO put stock in fortune cookies, those things NEVER lie!)

Why am I writing this?  Well, I was writing another blog and lost my anonymity.  While that might not seem like a bad thing, I found it terminal to my ability to write honestly.  And really, no matter how good the mask is, if you can’t be honest at the core, your writing will suck.

Thankfully, the internet offers an almost infinite palate of different shades of anonymity.  So here I am, starting again from the beginning.

Oddly enough, life is a fluid path and things change far more than I would have ever believed since the last time I started out on a new beginning.  From my faith to my tastes in music/food/clothes to my daily routine, everything is different from just a few months ago.  Sometimes in very small ways, sometimes in HUGE ways, but everything has changed somehow.

While I might re-use some elements of my old blog in the future once I feel safely distant from that persona, so much has changed that I promise that 95% of my content will be “all new” material.

Hopefully, this time around I’ll post consistently.  I won’t promise daily, but I’d like to be close to that.  I travel a lot, and I have plenty of time to write, so I’m going to try to have a bit of a backlog ready to post on those days when I don’t get a chance to string two words together.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with the best fortune cookie message I’ve ever received:

“Never argue with an Idiot.  He will only drag you down to his level and then defeat you with experience.”

 

Once Upon a Time…

A long time ago in a country not very far away, I grew up believing in Fairy Tales. I believed that somewhere there was a beautiful princess waiting for me to ride up on a white charger and sweep her off her feet. Sure, there might be dragons, or evil sorceresses, or dark knights or whatever the story might bring against me…but I was prince charming, I would prevail!

I met a princess, I wanted to be her prince, we tried to find happily ever after…

…And I’ve learned some things since then. I’ve learned that riding off into the sunset just means trying to find a place to sleep in the dark. I’ve learned that even the glorious prince makes mistakes, falls down in the mud, and gets lost on his way back to the castle. I’ve learned that a sharp sword cuts the ones you love just as easily as the ones who stand against you.

I’ve also learned that “charming” is essentially an untenable ideal. Besides which, girls may dream about “Prince Charming,” but grown women don’t seem to care anymore.

I spent fifteen years trying to be prince charming, and all it got me was a divorce, child support, and a shattered ego. Then I decided that I wouldn’t give up on romance, and I’d try to be prince charming again…and all that got me was an unwanted second marriage, months of recriminations and disappointments and the realization that I might want to be “charming,“ but somewhere along the journey “Prince Charming” got replaced by his understudy, “Squire Just-Doing-My-Best.”

Prince Charming is dead. His body lies somewhere along the path in an unmarked grave; unmourned, unmissed and unremarkable.

As one prince falls, another must take up his place. And so, here’s to Just-Doing-My-Best. May he succeed where Charming failed. May he find the princess, the light at the end of the tunnel, the castle in the sky, the treasures of his dreams, and the happily-ever-after at the end of his story.

The Prince is Dead! Long Live the Price!