Prompt 16: Paid To Talk

If I could be paid to talk about anything, what would it be? Well I can honestly say that the answer does not immediately jump right out at me. I suppose if I had to choose just one thing it might be drumming. Yes! Drumming is what I would talk about. I would go on and on about how I hear song on my iPod or radio and can't help but play along in my head, memorizing every beat and pluck of the bass. I might even tap my foot on the floor of my car and accidentally pressing down the gas pedal a little too far. Or I might tap my fingers hurriedly against the steering wheel, just barely retaining control of the vehicle. Oh yeah.  I could talk on and on about drumming.

I'd love to talk about history. I'm studying to teach it, so I'd better like talking about it shouldn't I? I could blab on about the rise of the Roman Empire; its roots as a simultaneously religiously driven culture, and a militaristic culture, all because of its first two rulers. Or how the similarities between the devolution of their glorious republic and the goings on of our country are eerily similar. I'd pontificate about how the communists and the fascists were not ideological enemies, but more like feuding brothers; each vying for the same group of believers. It is called Nationalist Socialist for a reason you know.  But history doesn't make the big bucks, and that's what we are talking about isn't it?

Maybe politics would fit the bill. Yeah. Maybe instead of drumming or history, I would talk politics. Go on those Sunday shows and lay it down like the best of them. I would spit about how the democrats and republicans are taking all of our freedoms away one by one and destroying the constitution. Yes! And then I'd sputter and hiss about how our moral framework as a country has failed and how the debt is going to crush us and how we should pull out of every country militarily. And I would fume about how liberal the media is and how cowardly the GOP is and how great Rand Paul is!

OK. So maybe that's not such a great idea.

I really should talk about something a little less controversial. Such as religion! I could tirelessly exhort people to accept and to believe in Jesus. And I wouldn't even mind if I had to do it on a street corner in front of a marijuana clinic. That wouldn't be controversial, right?  Here is an idea. How about I talk about sports, or rather Boston sports? No. What about cooking? Never mind. I'm terrible at cooking. Maybe just food and the eating of it? Computers? Guns? Graphic Design? My blasphemous dislike for the Beatles, but not without the caveat that I appreciate their voluminous contributions to music in general?

Alright. So I have a lot of interests, likes, and hobbies. I seriously could not pick one if I had a gun to my head. However, what has driven me to teach history isn't really about the “money” at all. I want to do that because kids hate history. I hated history! Yet I believe it is the most vital of subjects to learn. So if I could get paid to talk about anything, and it really was about the money, I guess I would just talk about anything. Really. It would be a variety show of bloviation. I do it anyways. Might as well get paid for it.