#the guy whose primary duty in the challenge will be to marry and have kids

[townsenddecades]

1325 – Day 4 – Townsend Farm

As 1325 draws to a close, both sets of Townsend twins celebrate their birthdays. Hurt feelings and the last remnants of distance between them can’t keep Malika and Benjamin from reminiscing how quickly time has gone by. Their hasty marriage seems like yesterday, and yet, the children borne from their youthful foolishness are already thirteen years old and nearing adulthood. It defies belief.

And yet, so much has happened. They have created a family, an entire household full of children. They have lost children, too – little Duncan, and Joan. And their other relatives – Edith and Helen, and William and so many of their acquaintances. But they have managed to rebuild their lives, and they have managed to survive Malika’s ill-fated dalliance with Clement Dudley.

It is difficult not to become closer again when remembering all they have suffered through together. All they have overcome.

The children are glad to see their parents gradually become more affectionate again, although they are wise enough – even the younger ones – not to comment on it. Only Malcolm is a bit hesitant. He is glad that he doesn’t have to fear his parents’ ill-humour anymore, but he fears the prospect of more younger siblings. His sister doesn’t seem to mind helping with little Edwin and Cecily, but for his part, he can’t be elsewhere fast enough when he hears either of them begin to wail.

Benedict, too, is slowly getting older. His hair has started to grey, and his fingers get a little slower while working on his carpentry. He is fifty now, a respectable age for a peasant. Especially one that has been through a famine.

But he still enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and prays he will get more years to see them grow and to support his son’s family. As glad as he is that Malika and Benjamin have overcome their difficulties, he is sure that new challenges are just beyond the horizon.

But for the moment, despite the struggles of a long winter, the Townsends are well – and ready for spring!

Prev: 1325, Day 3, Part 2/2 <--> Next: 1325, Day 4, Part 2/4

[keithos]

A Game of Thrones...

My good-good friend Franka posted the image above on Facebook today, challenging fellow social media denizens to come up with suggestions.  Thanks to Janine C-F, Stefan S and Rhonda M for their help tuning these responses, and the bonus profiles included.

Jon Snow went to St. Anthony's College. He came from an influential enough family, but really didn’t know enough to get into one of the top schools.  After O’Levels, he opted to go on a Northern European tour to try to find himself rather than continue his education.  Even after that time of introspection and rebirth, he still, admittedly, ent know much.

Cersei Lannister is pure St. Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain. She probably got in on the 20% allocation though due to her father’s influence, and is suffering from an inferiority complex because her parents didn't send her to Maple Leaf where the guy she dreamed in primary school of marrying ended up.

Sansa Stark went to Bishop Anstey High School.  She wanted to go to a Convent, but was sent to Bishops, remained resentful for the full seven years, but became a full-on Hilarian in spite of herself.  As is typical of her fellow alumna, she is bright, powerful in her own right, considers “male wisdom” an oxymoron, and marriage is a conversation that’s fairly technical.  As a Hilarian in my life once told me, “Bishops women generally fall into one of three categories: to be married, were married, or with somebody else’s married.” Don’t slay the messenger.  Sansa fits the bill.

Arya Stark, quite naturally, followed her sister to Bishop Anstey, where her mother and her aunties also all went to school.  Actually, Lysa Arryn probably went to Bishop’s Centenary, which would explain her neuroses around her older sister Catelyn Stark nee Tully and her niece Sansa.

Tyrion Lannister is a QRC old boy.  "I drink and I know things," especially the latter part hold true to their spirit.  He runs sh*t behind the scenes, and could easily be the King himself, his influence on the world around him wholly underestimated.  But his ambitions don't run that way.  He just wants live.  Contrary to what might be believed, Tyrion doesn’t suffer from Short Man Syndrome, because all QRC men are 6′2″ or taller in their hearts.

Big brother Jaime Lannister went to Fatima College.  He was the kind of youth whose rich dad facilitated his showing up at school with great hair and the newest trendy sneakers before the ads for them ran twice.  He’s most likely to end up running one of his father's companies at age 17 or taking political office largely off his good looks and considerable arrogance.

Daenerys Targaryen was an expat child who ended up at the International School, but really wanted to run with public school kids.  She was probably popular with the Burger Boys crowd, until people saw her in her uniform for the first time and wondered what she was doing liming downtown.  Her best friend Missandei, a St. Joseph’s Convent St. Joseph grad, continues to roll with her through thick and thin, struggling to keep single mother and senior executive Dany level while quietly managing her own personal dramas with her boyfriend, TT Super League team player-coach and former St. Augustine Senior Comprehensive football captain, Greyworm.

Brienne of Tarth went to San Juan Senior Comprehensive where she survived a co-ed existence, before moving on to A'Levels at Bishop Anstey.  She excelled in the humanities and captained the senior football team, bringing back to back Girls Intercol titles to the Hilarians and won personal awards for being the league’s best fullback.  She was granted a prefect’s badge in Upper Six, where the younger Stark sister became one of her form charges.  She is legendary for beating a ruffian nicknamed “Dog” in the middle of town one Friday evening for disrespecting the Stark girls.

Theon Greyjoy went to St. Mary’s College. He felt himself the cat’s meow and was quite popular with St. Francois Girls, until a Belmont Intermediate youth named Ramsey Bolton thoroughly emasculated him in a Junior Achievement trade fair and made a lie of all Theon’s tales of bravado. He eventually came into himself again in adulthood after a couple years in a sales job that puts hair on his chest and gave him renewed confidence.

BONUS: Nobody knows where Ellaria Sand went to school before she moved in with her children’s father Oberyn Martell, Presentation College Chaguanas grad and foreign-used car dealer, in his inherited Lange Park home.  She doesn’t tell anybody and nobody asks, because she’s fly and distracting.  That probably means that it’s North Eastern College or Iere High School.  She may have had to leave school because she was pregnant with her first before writing CXC.  She and Oberyn look like they were the type to have been breaking school to... yunno.  Oberyn has four kids other than their own four daughters, the Sand Snakes.  But Ellaria doesn’t care, so long as he knows where home is and keeps up his duties there.  Their four girls though were split between Chaguanas North and Chaguanas South Secondary, and spent their days at school chooking fire to start brawls between students of the neighbouring campuses.

Nobody knows where Varys went to school either.  He was probably already an adult before the first Government Exhibition examination was held.  He holds firm to the belief that the English should have never left Trinidad, and will tell anybody willing to hear, albeit very quietly.

[socialattractionuk]

You can unfriend a bigoted mate, but a relative with questionable views is for life

What if it’s the people closest to you holding beliefs that belong in the waters of Bristol Harbour?  (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

You knew there’d probably be some racists in your Facebook friends list. 

The red flags might’ve started blowing during the winds of Brexit. A questionable post on immigration, a nasty meme, a suspicious number of St. George’s flag emojis. 

But the past few weeks really brought out people’s true colours. Many of us will have spent time laboriously debunking the ‘All Lives Matter’ slogan using the burning house analogy illustrated for primary school kids. Others will have lost hope and gone straight for the ‘unfriend’ button. 

But what if it’s the people closest to you holding beliefs that belong in the waters of Bristol Harbour? 

Engaging online with the girl you played netball with in Year 7 is one thing, but having uncomfortable, challenging conversations with the people you love considerably raises the stakes. 

Whether it’s social distancing measures, government policies or gender self-identification, the likelihood is that you won’t see eye to eye with everyone in your family. Long periods indoors together means more time for discussion, and an increased likelihood of it getting heated.  

At the end of the day, you can’t unfriend your mum, but I believe we have a duty to challenge our families nonetheless.

Over the years I’ve had plenty of discussions with my parents that have ended in a door slam or two, but they have been necessary – not just to get a better understanding of the world, but of each other. 

What about friends, though? Or, even more troublesome, partners?  

They’re the family you choose, yes, but it doesn’t make it any less difficult when they throw an outrageous opinion in your direction.  

We tend to gravitate towards people who share similar values to our own anyway and I like to think that my mates are all decent people (deep down). 

Besides, it would be boring if we all thought exactly the same way (I’m not talking about the racists here, they can absolutely get in the bin). 

Unlike friends, however, if the person you’re building a life with has opposite core values and beliefs to yours, it can have a much bigger impact on your existence. 

I dated someone in the not-distant-enough past whose views were dissimilar to my own. 

On our first date we discovered that we voted in different directions. ‘Not a big deal’ I thought. ‘It’s the same for my parents and they’ve been married 36 years. I’ll send him a good Momentum video or something, that’ll do the trick.’ Besides, he was extremely handsome. 

Over the first few weeks he dropped a few misogynistic tropes here and there, but what straight white man doesn’t, right? Like a gender-role-reversal of Pygmalion, I could educate him on how to speak in a ‘fairer’ manner. Besides, I didn’t want to re-download Hinge. 

The hardcore stuff came after a month. He recoiled at two men kissing on TV, then defended himself with: ‘I don’t want to see straight people kissing either’, despite his marked silence throughout The Notebook.  

As painful as it may be, some differences of opinion can be make or break

He was adamant that his future son should play with trucks over dolls, and showed grave concern that I would ‘turn a straight child gay’ by putting him in a dress. 

‘I’ll take him to Pride’ I decided, ‘then he’ll get it.’ My ovaries were slowly dying and I’d invested too much time in this guy to start all over again. I could miss the opportunity to have any kids at all, let alone one whose sexuality I could ‘convert’ with a floral garment. 

I told myself that if I was expecting him to stop being so narrow-minded then perhaps I needed to open my own mind a little bit more. Maybe I was the bigot? Maybe I was the one discriminating?

Or maybe I was flogging a dead horse. We were, quite simply, incompatible. 

In the final month came more clangers I struggled to look past. We argued, we debated, we discussed, and we were exhausted. Needless to say, we split up. 

Now arguably, we all have a duty to challenge not only those around us, but ourselves as well. Progress is infinite, after all – Grandma once thought she was woke too, remember. 

It’s all well and good telling your boyfriend/girlfriend/grandma what they can no longer say, but we must listen to others when they tell us that our own words are prejudicial, discriminate or hurtful.   

But if other people refuse to do the same? 

As painful as it may be, some differences of opinion can be make or break. Sacrificing your principles is denying a part of yourself, and that can’t lead to peace or happiness. 

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Relationships are all about compromise. Challenging my principles is something I’m open to, but denying them is not. Painful as it may be, some differences in opinion are too substantial to work with.

So your dad’s a bigot… but you can’t have a new one, so you may as well have a go at changing his mind.

But you can change your partner. I’m not saying you should end a relationship as a signal of virtue to the rest of the world, but don’t exhaust yourself trying to see eye to eye with someone who prefers being wilfully blind.

It’s okay to give up on a lost cause.   

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing rosy.edwards@metro.co.uk

Share your views in the comments below.

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