Pacts or "Le Pacte des loups"

(Right hand raised, swearing on the hard copy)

The Wawina Pact

October 12, 2008

12:-- PM CST

Written and signed with a sworn oath with one Patty Healy-McMeans in a very posh shack in Wawina, MN.

The City of Wawina, MN is not a city.  It is a strip of houses clustered around a heavily worn highway somewhere northwest of Minneapolis.  The only indication that Wawina, MN exists is the corrugated metal shed with the words "TOWN HALL" emblazoned on it.  What a perfect place to figure out the new parameters of my life.  

As I'm writing this I keep thinking back to the various phases in history which have been shaped by various pacts, accords, and treaties... all beginning with a certain city in their title.  The Treaty of Versailles.  The Yalta Conference.  On and on. Where those pacts charted out the courses of millions of lives - from very real places (Yalta is beautiful), Wawina is no where and the pact bearing it's name charts only the furthering of my own endeavors.  

Article One:

Learn to Speak French.  Easy.

Article Two:

Become physically active.  No-one loves a Jabba-the-Hut that isn't Jabba-the-Hut.

Article Three:

Reinvigorate your practice as an artist.  However, this must be done without a focus on production.  Instead, research, reading, writing, looking at other work that has been floating on the periphery of my vision.  That's the ticket.

Article Four:

Purchase/Adopt a companion animal.  Kitten.  Free Kitten.

Article Five:

Rediscover the Twin Cities by pretending you don't live here.  Act like a tourist. Never go to the same bar twice in a week.

Article Eight:

(previous articles not suitable for web presenation)

Stop sleeping with people you don't really know.  Qualification: three date minimum replaces three drink minimum.  

I Andrew M. Schroeder here by swear to uphold the preceding articles.

October 12, 2008