Collis Verum

[Please correct my Latin if I'm wrong] Ha! "My Latin" makes it sound as though I have it. I don't. Barely. Collis Verum refers to the grassy hill and forest across the street from the house where I grew up. We (I) named it Collis Verum (Truth Hill) because whenever we'd head up there to lay on the grass, the softest grass I've ever known, it was just incredibly easy to bare all (verbally, that is). Being up there felt like we were living the lyrics to Alphaville's "Forever Young" (I prefer Youth Group's cover).

It wasn't just the truth thing, the hill was so much more. We spent endless hours up there building imaginary worlds, like Aesir Navaa, the land of which I was Empress. There were our fairy houses, the idea for which was directly stolen from "Fairy Tale: A True Story" (1997), and our archeological expeditions where we dug through the rocks deposited there by long dead pioneer farmers who removed them from their fields and dumped them on top of their garbage. And what wonderful garbage it was! I will forever love green glass lemon juicers because of that initial find. I memorized and recited "Romeo + Juliet" in its entirety on that hill. I have precious memories of my favorite dug, Rusty, on that hill. I'd like to say I kissed my first boy on that hill but that would be complete fabrication. I did however daydream constantly about kissing my first boy on that hill. First boy and first elf. I made up this wild story about a beautiful elf prince living on the other side of a thin veil between our worlds on that hill. He could pass through and fell madly in love with me. I did fancy I saw an elf up there once. Or a troll. Or a magical humanoid of some sort. I very clearly saw a short man in a dark cape and hat with a tall wooden staff hobble down the backside of the hill and into the forest. I halfheartedly ran after him and lost my nerve when he disappeared into the brush. Now I consider myself a logical person but I know what I saw that day and no one can change my mind about that. Not nut'n, not nobody, not no how.

I can still remember the swarms of dragonflies covering the milkweed, and the way the white dogs were dyed orange after a day running through the mysterious grass pollen. I remember climbing trees there on the first day of the New Millennium, which was strangely warm. I remember being chased by a coyote after my two cowardly dogs left me to fend for myself. I remember seeing the abandoned freezers tipped sideways from a distance and telling my younger brother they were coffins. I remember finding the rare Jack-in-the-Pulpits that I'd only just read about in science class. I remember weaving bracelets and ropes out of the grass. I remember that slightly skittish feeling I got when I went into the woods alone. And accidentally eating that giant mushroom we found that mom sauteed thinking it was diced chicken. Mushrooms, gross.

I could literally spend the rest of the afternoon writing those "I remember's", especially now that the legal owner of the hill has decided it should be another cornfield. I will hate him with a fiery passion for the remainder of my life, BTW. But for now I'll end with this:

Forever Young (1984)

Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we're getting in tune
The music's played by the, the madman

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, or never

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading rose
Youth like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue
We let 'em come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, or never