The emergence of General Pau

My mum called, “Have you got my copy of ‘The complete works of Alan Marshall?’”

“No, why?”

“I want to read ‘How I met General Pau’ to Ellen.”

“It is probably in Ellen’s room. Last time I was there I was going to read ‘General Pau’ to her.” 

(Ellen had a particularly bad tooth ache and needed some therapeutic words.)

Life can be uncanny at times. I was at the Bendigo Writers Festival and that very day I was going to see John Wolseley whom I have admired for a very long time, who, I have even said out loud, is possibly my all-time favourite artist. I had been terribly excited to be going to this event. John Wolseley’s work and words for me are inspirational, I like the honest approach he takes to his art. I like the way he connects with the landscape he is depicting, physically and creatively. I like the notes he puts on his work, threads of his musings and observations of the places he is painting. I like that the detail and the abstract merge together to form one piece and I especially like the way he connects many pieces of paper together to form one large collage. I like his conservation philosophies and his commitment to the environment.

I had been thinking about this event which I was anticipating with such excitement and every so often the thought occurred to me that sometimes when one meets with a figure they have admired from afar that the reality does not always match. I am capable of filling in the gaps that I don’t know about people with embellishments of my own imagination, usually in a vision that suits my own sense of things worthy of admiration. I don’t tend to do it specifically, but in a soft general cloudy way like an aura that surrounds this person and encourages me to think that should I meet them, that I would really like them.

The emergence of General Pau was rather serendipitous because in this story the young Alan Marshall rides to a nearby town to hear General Pau speak. He knew about Generals, they were characters of action and he was keen to listen to a real live one. To his disappointment General Pau did not live up to his expectations. It is one of my favourite Alan Marshall stories and I like the way it has surfaced at this point of my life and I am not sure if I should ride my horse into the theatre so I can make a windy exit from John Wolseley’s talk if I too find my expectations dashed. (You may have to read the story to understand this reference.)

Post script: Ellen called later and reported no ease to her painful mouth, but that grandmas reading of General Pau had calmed and lulled her to sleep.