Day 14

The Wild Man of Windsor

It defies the imagination, boggles the mind, confounds the mirror, leaves me speechless.

Well, almost speechless.

No wonder I avoid being caught out in someone's photograph. Not only am I the white haired old guy in the picture, but my cover has been blown. My claim to perennial sophistication is ended. His dudeness is dude no longer.

What folks back home want, apparently, are not pictures of buildings or landscapes that can be seen in better color from the internet. They want people.

Judging from the poses of people being photographed in front of ancient, historic, significant, picturesque, or just plain famous places, the current fashion, especially among the young and beautiful (or those who want to be seen that way) is the ta-da pose. Groups hugging, laughing, signing with their hands. Groups of teenage girls jumping in unison -- the let's-appear-spontaneous pose.

I have seen the heroic pose, the mock heroic pose, the ganster-hand-sign pose, the withering glare pose, the arrogant dismissive pose, and the happy tourist pose. So many choices!

I was pondering which of these might work when this picture was taken. I will call it the moment of indecision pose. It's the tell-me-'when'-before-you-take-it pose. It's the senior moment pose. The clueless pose.

Well, in that modern all purpose phrase, it is what it is.

We are at Windsor Castle, after all, the home of kings and queens for the better part of a millenium. One ought to be dignified. Or if not dignified at least stiff, which is the American cousin of dignified.

I have come to see that I can play the role of the senior citizen. It is fairly easy. The white hair, as seen here in halo effect, and the wrinkles are pretty convincing, although one young man selling tickets for Romeo and Juliet actually carded me.

It was very considerate of him.

It doesn't matter. Here is the picture that proves I went to Windsor. I got the senior discount, too, which is no small benefit.

And in real life I play a much younger man.