To people of this world I am Rothshambeau. Whether my first or last is of no consequence, for Rothshambeau is my given name and the name by which I’m known. I wear it like a cloak or moniker as I wear the glory of being a son of my Lord. My name, Rothshambeau, is like a shield of honor and glory worn by a soldier or an apron by a mother. Rothshambeau is what I am, and who I’ll be. It’s my being.

I come to you with honor, pride and in the grasp of great emotion. For a time I have known of you and with great interest, I have asked of you. I was inquisitive of your family and your heritage. I’ve watched you washed the soiled garments of others. I’ve heard you speak when you were to be heard. I’ve seen you dance and watched your eyes in the moons light.

I pray you don’t think my gaze inappropriate. My intentions have never been less than honorable and my timing always discretionary. My desire to know you has been driven by a childlike thirst. It was that thirst that carried me to the bush at the waters’ edge to see you. That thirst too drove me to be at the ball alone. I was not alone because of a lack of interested companions, but because I desired to be without distraction. I was there to quench my thirst by admiring the beauty I was there to see.

As my father’s words told true, "life has a flow and to change that flow one must consider all that will be changed." I feel as though I have arrived at that point in my life when the flow of life could be altered forever. Indeed I have thought much of the consequences of my intended deed. Even as I may be blinded by the unquenched thirst dwelling within me, I know it is a right thing I do.

Today I am honored to see you and hopeful to know your touch as I bear my thoughts to you. I come as Rothshambeau and stand on the words of anyone who might know or have words of me. If noble or diverse be their words it is my will to be judged by them. Even as I stand before you it is my will that you see me as I am, as Rothshambeau.

I have made clear who I am and how I have come to know you. I have told of my thirst and thoughts these past weeks and days. Now I stand to ask you to join me, to be Rothshambeau. I ask that you be known as Rothshambeau, as I am, and that we grow as one. I ask that the fruit of our lives be as the fruit of one tree. I ask that as new life grows from us, they too become, as we would be, a part of Rothshambeau.

As my Lord is always true, I shall be true to you.

Rothshambeau