Thirty-seven years ago I stood in a bar in Jerusalem talking to a tall brunette with dark eyes about whatever a 16 year-old boy thought would lead to further conversation.
Surrounded by a group of guys from the same trip all doing their best to impress the girls they were talking to getting no where fast we didn’t lose hope when it didn’t go anywhere.
It was the beginning of the summer and we lived in dorms and didn’t worry about much because our parents were 10,000 miles away. Life was pretty good.
Stood there drinking a beer that I couldn’t buy on my own in the states and laughed when one of the guys complained that he still hadn’t been kissed.
“There goes June. If I don’t make things happen in July I don’t know what I’ll do.”
There are 10 million stories from that summer and at least a 100 of them are true though I can’t speak for the fellow that complained that warm evening.
Maybe he did better in Eilat, many of us did and maybe he didn’t. It feels like a different lifetime and yet kind of like yesterday too.
Still Crazy After All These Years
Paul is probably right, I probably wouldn’t be convicted by a jury of my peers.
A couple of days ago my children were employed and now they are preparing for their next adventures.
Talked to them both collectively and separately about the experiences of their old man and the adventures he has had.
Told them there were moments I wondered if I had the ‘Rona or if it was just stress kicking my almost middle aged ass.
Spun a few tales about where I had been against where I had planned to go and told them to pay attention to who says they care and who takes action.
Talked about the people who asked how many times I had been divorced and the other stories they heard people say versus what they knew was true.
Reminded me about the genealogy work I have been doing and the poor scholarship exhibited by people I think are distant relatives.
They have the wrong names tied to some relatives and dates that don’t match up and I flip between irritation and ambivalence.
Went back and forth with one who asked me if I was certain and I said I knew my own father’s history well enough to confirm what was correct and what isn’t.
There are family secrets and there are family myths and sometimes a struggle to figure out what is and isn’t real.
But his name, birthday and mother are simple. Dad looked enough like grandma and grandpa for me not to think twice.
So the kids and I laugh about stories and who says what and none of us care much if at all about things said by those who don’t deserve to be heeded.
Intermixed and in between they catch me staring harder and my daughter says that kind of intensity is kind of creepy.
I laugh and tell her that when she becomes a mother she’ll understand how you can get lost in thought about her children. You’re not staring in a creepy way because you’re lost in a thought about something they did at five knowing that is a decade or so past and you’re wondering what they’ll be doing 15 years from now.
It is typical parent behavior and we all do it from time to time.
She doesn’t hear my inner thoughts marveling again at how fast time has gone and the idea that in months she’ll be on her way.
The time will come for that and I won’t share those daily cuz there is no reason to.
Midnight Again
Blinked and it was 9:30 and blinked once more and it is midnight again. Been writing on and off for much of the day while I waited for news from a few people and the witching hour has arrived.
Reminds me of how far away that 16 year-old boy in the Jerusalem bar feels and how certain smells, sounds and music makes him feel so damn close.
Sometimes I can’t figure out what the hell he was thinking or what he believed would happen if he tried certain things.
And then something happens and it makes sense.
Kind of funny to say that or even admit it out loud, but it does.
Saw things then that felt like they would come down the road at a future time and some of them have.
Now on the eve of more change while I wait for the coaster to take off again at breakneck speed I let go of what was for what will be.
Should be a hell of a ride.
