Life: glass half empty version.
March 29, 2015 § 10 Comments
You’re too young,
irresponsible, whiny, mouthy, impulsive.
Too drifty, dreamy, dumb to
pass math, finish your science fair project,
dodge summer school.
Too short, scrawny, knobby, chunky, zitty, metal-mouthed
to get asked to the dance
be called “popular”
kiss a member of the other team.
Too trapped; your bike has a flat.
And no, you can’t borrow the car
for another hundred years.
And even then it’s
a maybe.
***
You’re too busy.
Getting that degree, that job, that house,
that—oops, where did that baby come from?
Too puke-stained, caffeinated, exhausted,
scheduled, memoed, networked,
mortgaged.
You need to mow the lawn,
and can you pick Tommy up
from soccer practice?
***
You’re too burned out.
Can’t keep up with these
Fresh-out of biz school kids.
Thinking retirement, but at thirty
“old” seemed too far away.
And now “old” is too close.
Like objects seen in the rearview mirror.
Got to hang on a couple more years
or three or four.
Too bad Walmart doesn’t hire greeters
anymore.
***
You’re too old, irrelevant, achy.
Too small for your skin
Too quick to forget where you put your glasses,
too long to remember
that night back in ’57.
Too weary, stale, querulous, nostalgic,
Too powerless and long in the tooth.
Too expensive to maintain.
Alll those pricey meds–
and you’re in the donut hole.
***
You’re too dead and gone.
What?
That was it?
That was the ride?
It was too short, too confusing,
too busy, too distracted,
too hit-and-run and
Dead is too long.
***
Got another quarter in your pocket?
Let’s try this ride again.
Ok- message received- I will be hoping for the message ” half full” soon.
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Me too. Half-full should be next week’s post. I am more a half-full person myself, but sometimes when I sit down to write a post the contrarian in me comes out.
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Wow! “Too small for your skin” made me smile. What a sermon on mindfulness and paying attention in the moment. Though it does startle me how far down that timeline I am.
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The passage of time has always taken me by surprise. I remember being quite startled to find myself at college in Rhode Island, my parents driving back to New Jersey without me.
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brilliant blog! the fleeting and transitory nature of the world is hard to face, but you describe it beautifully!!!….. this is why in meditation we try to reach that point where time stops. it may be for a brief moment only, but the restorative spirit it provides goes a long, long way. you describe such a wild and crazy ride; sometimes we just need to get off for a minute and take a breath.
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And when the ride is crazy we need to realize it is still one fine ride. Next week the post will cover the optimist’s take on the ride.
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I’m always learning from your blog any ol’ time, even when it is like this & I am going around with a flowers in the air, rose-colored glasses on the brain, beachy high 5 summer vibes. This makes me think of that modern classic dad song “Cats in the Cradle” was it? Yeah, think so. “I know we’ll have a good time, then son…”
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Jan, you are so right. This post and that song are both about being too overwhelmed and busy to allow a good time.
My glasses are rosy too….
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Like how you are willing to explore some of the dark side, the shadow, the etcetera of the dust rather than just the light…
cause if we are the dust,
guess we are also the light that helps us see the dust?
Anyway,
thanks for illuminating some dust for us all:
I especially have found myself way too much time-depriving myself,
thinking and feeling like I’m walking the wrong way up (or down?) the escalator of every existence,
when rather than focusing on how far I jump to that next step,
I can just stop and let the ride move me along,
be and do things with others around me,
and in general have fun!
After all,
rides are fun, too!
Thanks, again!
Paul of Flowerland Mountains
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What a great comment Paul. It is a work of poetry. I wish we’d all stop once in a while. Just stop with no and…after it. Time is all we have and we keep hurrying it along as if life were a race to the finish.
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