A common complaint registered by those who travel this confusing maze of connecting dots called life is...”Hey, it’s all going by too fast.”
Wasn’t I just the new guy at the office, wasn’t I just in school, wasn’t I just learning how to drive, wasn’t I just dreaming about the future...wasn’t I just finishing off that box of Mallomars?
Oh yeah...that I was.
Where's it all gone?
Where's it all leading?
How can I ever keep up?
When we were seedlings, growing incrementally each year,
time was measured by quantitative landmarks.
“I love television!”
“How come I can’t
stand up?”
“So when does this talking thing kick in?”
And so on and so on.
Every new day to an infant is a new lifetime...it’s the only
thing he or she knows.
That and the fact that pooping seems like an inefficient
system.
Soon, we learn to interact with our peers in social
situations: nursery school, pre-school, school
school, each year broken into
segments.
“Hey, I learned how to draw a pumpkin...a turkey...a tree...a
bunny...a flower...my Uncle Louie drinking beer!”
Summer finally rolled around and we drifted slowly and happily
until fall, where we found ourselves trying on new shoes, new shirts, new
pants...new everything.
“Wait, what...you mean I have to do all that stuff again...with all those people...again?"
And we did, one long year after another long year, after
another, as our bodies grew and changed, our minds grew and changed and our
perspectives grew and changed.
Each year something different, something new, something
exciting, something learned.
Until finally, we grew into adults, grew into careers, grew
into meaningful relationships and grew into our current waist size.
We established our routines, our families, our dwellings, our
means of transportation...even our favorite macchiato.
The days became comfortable in their regularity. The weeks
in their steady progression. The months in their orderliness. The seasons in their
lack of surprise.
“I expect it’ll be a cold one this winter.”
“Yep.”
“Should be a beautiful spring.”
“Yep.”
“Gonna be a hot
summer.”
“Yep.”
“Fall is so pretty.”
“Yep”
Yep, yep, yep...one yep after another it morphs into one long day until suddenly we notice....
“Hey, it’s not 1986 anymore!”
“Where did the last 30 years go...where did my abs go, where
did my old Monkees album go?”
Sure, there are surprises along the way...good surprises and
bad.
Sometimes they elate us, sometimes they stagger us.
They alter our stride, change our direction....even make time
disappear...if only for awhile
Until, again, we normalize, reset in our ways, snug in our
expectations of what tomorrow will bring.
A good thing or a bad thing...none of us can say. All we can
hope is it’s something....
And swiftly fly the days...
______________________________________
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The Little Red Christmas Ball
(because you can never start Christmas too soon)
(because you can never start Christmas too soon)
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Right on the nail as usual Brian and in this world of digital humans we begin to perceive new aspects of reality. We of our time are now the living history of mankind's transcendence into anything but the final frontier. "For good or bad" is not something to easily predict although we are witnessing change in human contact and relationships beyond the wildest dreams of alchemy. Good luck with your books and articles, most enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ropey! I suppose I am a digital human to some. Hopefully without my digits too transposed.....
Deletei need this carousel to stop for a few days... i need to catch up to the speed of life around here!!!
ReplyDeleteTighten the laces on your Nikes....
Deleteand my strait jacket....
Delete