[Child of the 7th Age]

Birdland-Shades of JFK!! That was a great and thoughtful post but I'm still going left. Look, I figure I've got to have some marketable skills: I'm a pretty good cook, housekeeper, gardener, raiser of animals, and teacher of young children. The skills connected with being a mother may actually be more transferable than some other more glamorous professions. I don't expect to be a great lady. I grew up in a working class area of Detroit; My dad was a factory worker so the Sam Gamgee model or the human variant thereof would work just fine. I never lost those roots despite my education. I pick up languages quickly when I have to-- in my graduate program in medieval history, I had to have Latin, Dutch, English, German, and French so one more certainly won't hurt. And the most glorious stretch of time I ever had was, many years ago, living in a farm in rural Ireland with a peat-burning stove, an outside loo, a pump for water, and no electricity. (I kid you not.) Our job was to take care of sick cows and get some very strange medicine into their mouth and down their stomachs. Now, if I can do that, I can survive Middle-earth!

The more serious question is whether I've been placed in this age for a reason and, therefore, shouldn't bail out of it. However, if and when such a mysterious portal comes crashing into my bedroom, I can only assume that someone upstairs may want me to consider a change of venue, or else why would the portal be there?

Ahem, ahem, despite the last poster who shall go unnamed, I have plenty of things to live for here, but, gosh, wouldn't it be sad to lay on your deathbed and know you had passed up such an extraordinary opportunity. I'm older than a lot of posters here so I know life is very short. Despite the hardships and uncertainty,I just couldn't resist! sharon, the 7th age hobbit