There was a hubbub in the garden today. Bunting had been put up, a long table had been put up, and there was a cake which the boys had been told not to touch until later.
They both watched out of the bedroom window as the adults hustled and bustled about.

They had been made to have a PROPER bath that morning, and were spick and span and been told not to get muddy.
The Outfits hung ready; imposing frills, and colour that would give you a headache in a dark room.
The boys were Not Keen. Jeffrey had suggested a cowboy outfit instead!
‘Boys!’ shouted Dad. ‘Get dressed for the photos!’
They got dressed. Badly.
Dad bustled in, took one look, and started tucking Karl’s shirt in.
‘Come on boys, this is an important day for Nana; we all need to be good and soon there will be cake!’
‘Cake!’ the boys agreed.
Dad finished adjusting their bow ties and stood back.
‘Oh, you both look darling!’ he said, and wiped a small tear from his eye. ‘Right, gang, let’s go!’
Dad led them out of the bedroom and into the hurly-burly of preparations.
Nana was in the front room with a gaggle of her bingo buddies fussing round her. Jeffrey had to admit she looked really happy. He had worried because dad had said Nana would be glowing, and he thought it sounded kinda painful.
‘OH MY BOYS!’ Nana shouted.
The boys gave Nana a kiss, carefully avoiding the acres of dress.
‘Happy birthday, Nana!’ Karl said.
‘Bless you, sweetie, it’s not my birthday, it’s my wedding day!’ Nana smiled. ‘I’m marrying my greatest love!’
‘We lost touch after the Great Storm, and then I met your grandfather, mayherestinpeace, and here you are.
But I bumped into them again by the compost heap, and I have never been so happy! So why not spend the rest of my life happy?’ Nana asked. She stood, smoothing her dress.
Jeffrey and Karl were positioned in front of lots of chairs, by Mr Ladybird who was hosting the ceremony. He looked over and gave them a thumbs up.
They held onto the ring cushions tightly - Dad had been firm about not dropping them. Very firm.
Suddenly music started up and the boys turned round to peek through the chairs, and there was Nana walking with her friend Norma, who was also in a splendid frock, smiling at each other and both looking wonderful! Mr Ladybird gave them a big thumbs up, too.
Jeffrey drifted off after they had presented their pillows (with only a small nudge from dad), as words were spoken about lost love and rekindled romances. The audience giggled and sighed and went aaaah.
Then Karl said very loudly ‘Ugh! Kissing! No way!’ And everybody laughed again.

And as quickly as that everyone was throwing confetti and cheering.

‘Come on, Karl, it’s cake time now!’ said Jeffrey, and they made a beeline for the table.
Turned out, it was NOT cake time, instead there were a thousand pictures to pose for. Jeffrey was starting to wonder if he’d ever make it to cake time. He was told to say cheese so much, he kept thinking about cheese instead. None of the photos had him looking forward!
And then it was ALMOST cake time. Everyone sat down and listened while the bingo buddies to stories and everyone laughed, except for Jeffrey and Karl (who didn’t know why it was funny) and everyone said HURRAH!

And finally IT WAS CAKE TIME!
The boys were under the table eating cake, when Norma joined them.
‘Hello, boys, how are you? It’s all been a bit waiting for cake, hey?’
‘You and Nana looked so happy!’ Jeffrey said.
‘Love is nice, but kissing is yukky, Nana Norma!’ Karl said.
And Norma smiled a happy smile.
Words by @superkrispydj, pix by me.

More from Life

"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".

You May Also Like

The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed
1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.