"Rosebud."

[Mono no aware]

It is my sincere hope that everyone on this forum gets the opportunity to make their perfect post.  To sum everything up, in the beauty of brevity, in one fell swoop.  I have recently made mine.  And it's a transcendent experience.  May it happen to you all.  It inspires you, however, in its wake, to decide to shut up—and if everyone here did shut up, then the forum would go quiet and become defunct.  But if that were to happen, maybe the site could nevertheless be left up in a "read only" format, in order so that the final flowering of perfect posts would be there on the internet for the world to marvel at.  The "view the most recent posts on the forum" option would read like a brilliant collection of aphorisms and witticisms.  The sayings of the members of Suscipe Domine.  It would be less exciting, perhaps, than our quotidian little spats, but it would be excellent.

In closing, I would like to make an apology to Jayne K.  I gently mocked her, only a month ago, for cherishing clarity and straightforwardness in writing.  Jayne, you made a very good point, and in my arrogance I failed to see it.  I overlooked a pearl.  While I still prefer writing that is creative and innovative to writing that is simple and plain, I now have to admit that clarity can have its own kind of beauty.  When nothing is obscured, and when the truth of what you want to say shines, naked, in its pure glory.

Charles Foster Kane made his perfect post, in a sense, when on his deathbed he said nothing more than "Rosebud."  Everything in a single word.  It was an enigmatic utterance containing a real profundity.  I will not spoil it for those who haven't seen the film.  But "Rosebud," said Roger Ebert, "is the emblem of the security, hope and innocence of childhood, which a man can spend his life seeking to regain.  It is the green light at the end of Gatsby's pier; the leopard atop Kilimanjaro, seeking nobody knows what; the bone tossed into the air in 2001."  Too true.  And even with a nod to Hemingway in there.  I never really liked your writing all that much, Hemingway.  But at least you weren't Sufjan Stevens.  You can thank your lucky stars for that.

Amor et pax.

[Lynne]

Don't goooooooo 

[Jayne]

This will be a great loss to the forum.  (And, of course, your apology is accepted.)

[Chestertonian]

it's been fun

[red solo cup]

"And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears"

[OCLittleFlower]

Nooooooooo

[Older Salt]

Mary.

[erin is nice]

If you come back, I will never post another Sufjan song. Ever. I promise.

[Pheo]

I refuse to make Erin's promise, but if you come back I can throw in a free biopsy or something.

[Chestertonian]

I refuse to make Erin's promise, but if you come back I can throw in a free biopsy or something.

hahaha

[Heinrich]

I was just thinking how grand it is to have you here.

[zork]

Good night, and good luck Mr. Brocklehurst.

[Chestertonian]

hope it wasn't the young riff raff that drove Mr brocklehurst out of the neighborhood

[Mono no aware]

I think Older Salt just made his perfect post.  "Mary."  His devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is beyond question.  And Louis, who is a born theologian, seems to have taken a stab at his own perfect post in a different thread, entitled "the perfecy post" (sorry, Chestertonian, but that is actually the title.  It may not be too late for you to fix the typo, however).  Maybe a trend has commenced here.  Will OS and Louis keep posting, knowing it's all downhill from there, or will they opt to shut up?  Shutting up is difficult.  I'm having a hard time doing it myself.  Even Chestertonian might've come close to making his perfect post: "it's been fun."  After all, he's a fun fellow.  And it has been fun: I am glad we got to engage in some silly banter, Chestertonian, to bridge the enormous chasm between us.  Because you and I are very different people, with different views and extremely different tastes.  You rate Sufjan Stevens higher than Jane's Addiction.  So does Erin.  I am aghast.  oh you millennials how I abhor your generation.  But not you two personally.  You're good eggs.  Had you been seventeen in 1989, you'd understand.  I wonder what Jayne's perfect post would look like?  "I apologize."  LOL.  J/K!  Sorry, Jayners.  Totally just kidding.  I hope you make your perfect post someday, and I say it to your credit that I have no idea what it might possibly contain.  You're odd, and that's a good thing.  OCLittleFlower certainly could've quit on a high note (although I'm glad she didn't) after she referred to Sufjan Stevens as a "hipster Liberace."  That might be the only post on the forum that challenges the perfection of my own perfect post.  Lynne answered the last query on her introduction questionnaire ("fun random fact about yourself") with a defiant "meh."  That's awesome approaching perfect.  And Heinrich has flirted with perfection more than a few times, mostly in his trenchant jabs at his nemeses Petertherock and Greg.  He might be the only person here who has consistently been able to match Greg caustic wit for caustic wit.  If you search the forum for the word, um, "erection," you will find a truly hilarious LOL post at the end of the search results.  Please make sure to read it in context of the OP of that particular thread.  You also have to be familiar with Greg's posting habits.  I don't find myself in agreement much with the worldviews of either Petertherock or Greg, and Heinrich has always refuted the two of them with both wit and wisdom.  To be fair, his more serious posts are almost always on point too.  red solo cup has given me a tribute I do not deserve.  And it was nice of Pheo to offer, but I sincerely hope I don't need a biopsy anytime soon.  Und Herr zork?  Guten Nacht, mein guten Wachtmeister.  Auf Weidersehen.

[Cesar_Augustus]

I hope you'll write various good stories.

God bless you!