Scarred

I have been doing so much questing that I lost enough weight to be able to wear my leather sleeved baseball jacket from the Charles in Charge series we produced while I was at Scholastic Productions.

 Scott Baio wore a similar jacket in practically every episode of the series.  It ran for four years then was rerun to death. Scott was ageless, and while already in his late twenties, could still play TV’s first male babysitter.

 RQ is not ageless, and while the jacket fits again, I feel as out of place in it now as I did back then. I always felt a little guilty wearing that jacket. Yes, Scholastic Productions developed and co-produced the series with Universal Studios on their storied Culver City lot. And yes, I was the President of Scholastic Productions, but you have to remember I’d also been pulled around the classroom by my ear in the third grade (http://tvwsp.typepad.com/tvwsp/2009/07/the-reluctant-quester-fesses-up.html), and was still illiterate in the fourth (http://tvwsp.typepad.com/tvwsp/2009/07/the-reluctant-quester-grade-four.html).

Coming into the studio to watch the very first episode of Charles in Charge being taped was an out of body experience. I was there, but was a stranger in a not so strange land. I had seen this all before, watched productions get shot, but up until then had never seen one of our own being taped in front of a live audience for broadcast in prime time on the CBS Television Network. Woohoo!

 I had no feel for – no way to relate to - this experience…no way in. I was, as I had always remained, back in Mrs. Himber's class staring at the Metropolitan Reading Exam, unable to read the sample questions.

These days RQ is writing, taking pictures, co-creating story quests, and telling his own story here.  In the process, he is healing scars and allowing me for the first time to taste and enjoy my own unique talents - celebrate what is different about me.