Late afternoon approaches and I am on my second cup of coffee, it is no different than any other day except the coffee isn’t just for ritual but necessity.
Daylights saving time has begun and I have exchanged some sleep for extra daylight to be used for whatever purpose I might deem necessary.
Headphones on my ears, I listen to Simon & Garfunkel sing For For Emily Whenever I May Find Her and dream about people and places that occupy the contradictory roles of always with me and yet too far away.
This moment in time is special to me because it is always part of Summer’s vanguard and though we are some months away from it I know it will be here soon.
Truth be told I am decades away from when it first gained real importance to me.
I no longer have to worry about being back before dark or being punished for taking advantage of the extra sunshine to visit the places I wasn’t supposed to go.
Adult responsibilities and freedom have replaced some of the magic of childhood, but not all.
Mark The Layers Of Life
Sometimes the boys and I stop talking about our families and work long enough to reminisce about the things we used to do and the experiences we once had.
Many of them are marked by comments such as “it was our senior year, we were in sixth grade or about to start graduate school.”
Kind of reminds me of the rings on a tree that we use to determine the age of the tree but then again different.
Once school ends it gets to be a bit harder to distinguish what happened and when, but not impossible.
Got the History of Rock and Roll playing in my ear and the musical mashup is pushing through it is own parade of images.
Layers of life and all the moments and memories flow on by.
Strange days have arrived and I look at the world around me and wonder what is the best way to respond and describe what I see.
The children tell me stories about what they hear in school from their teachers and other students about the current election cycle.
We are floating around in a climate of hate, fear and anger that seems to ignore reasons for gratitude and happiness.
Logic seems to be lost and or forgotten and the conversations focal points all seem to be “if you disagree with me you are an idiot.”
That is not the sort of environment that is conducive for growth or learning but most of what I hear from the children makes me believe that their overall education isn’t being saturated by the bad attitude.
What I want for them is simple, a better world and it is probably no different than most if not all parents.
So I listen carefully to what they say and do my best to hear the words so that I can respond appropriately.
They need to know that it doesn’t have to be about shouting and insulting others. They need to know you don’t have to agree with all that you are told and how to use critical reasoning to come up with answers.
They need to know when you push back because what is happening is wrong and when to stay quiet but centered because there is no value in doing more.
You Don’t Care If People Like You
The music moves that parade of images back twenty some years and I hear one of the guys ask me why I don’t care if people don’t like me.
He says he’d like to have a harder edge and I give him an answer that made sense in my twenties but isn’t as polished as it would be now.
Funny thing is that I care far less now about those things than I did back then but have learned it is more important to get along with others and do a much better job of being silent.
That is part of decades in the work force, the experience that teaches you that likability is often more valuable than skill.
Funny how some of these memories float around inside our heads in a different sort of digital graveyard.
Future, Past & Present
It is an interesting time of life. Go back five or ten years and look at how things were compared to how they are now and far more is different than I would have imagined they would be.
Makes me wonder what will happen if we fast forward five or ten years.
Flip back ten and my youngest was a toddler and oldest was in kindergarten. Now go ten years the other way and I have two kids in their twenties doing who knows what.
Kind of surreal to think about what life might be like then, but got way too much going on now to spend more than a wisp of a moment on.
When the echoes of the future arrive I’ll be there to greet them, but far now the present is where we’ll have to stay.
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