The Universe Tugs

Big day here. I was able to talk to Aunt Jo on the phone for a few precious minutes. She'll be turning one hundred and five in a few months. Did I tell you that she had lunch with Eleanore Roosevelt at the white house? 

In other news, I've had Lola staying with me this week. She's a fine, sweet dog with no ambition and a good sense of humor. She won't really be led on a leash. I have to plan a route in advance and gently pull her in the direction that gets us where we need to go and gets us back home again.

Somewhere around mid-walk this afternoon, it occurred to me that the universe treats me the same way. I've never taken orders well. The cosmos has to trick me into thinking that everything's my own idea. Seems to have worked up to now.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

 

What If They Find Us Here?

 

Life's full of little lessons that I seem to learn over and over. There are only a couple of them that seem to matter much in the big picture. I seem to have spent the better part of a lifetime desperate for approval while working hard avoiding any measure of conformity. Assuring disapproval, you see.

Of course I'm far too lazy to check on a definition of eccentric, but I'll bet this fits in there somewhere. Almost a curmudgeon, I'm kept out of the club because I love almost everybody.

When I consider the time and effort that I have put into some vague notion of staying true to myself, I realize that I could have amounted to something by now. Cured something, earned something, won something, discovered something.

Lazy or stubborn?

Sticks and stones, buddy, sticks and stones.

When Evolution Fails Us

Oh, it's not so much that I'm disappointed with mankind... wait, yes, it is.

 

 

Line Up, Anarchists

 

As a longtime slow learner, it has taken me this long to get here. These days I'm too busy living to do much of anything else. I write but I don't finish anything. I sing and, when I'm lucky, the birds sing with me. I ran out of stuff to want a long time ago and never suffered much from too much ambition.

Somehow I'm optimistic. I believe there are more good folks than bad.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Short Skirts, Short Songs, Short Buses

 

Looking back, I shoulda' done it all backwards. In high heels. 

If I've learned anything in a long life, and that one is open to debate, it is that nothing's worth doing that doesn't lead to joy. Yours or someone else's.

Oh, I know- I didn't write in waltz time enough.

Feeble Attempts and Meager Returns

 

Me? I've no use for the big time. It's a good thing, I suppose, because the big time has never had any use for me. That mockingbird's not thinking about a record deal. Maybe saving the world was too big a task for a born-slacker. Besides, nobody's sure the world needs saving.

Sometimes I think that maybe there's enough love in the world. We just have a distribution problem.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

 

What If You Catch It?

 

Well, sir, I've chased money and I've chased fame. I've run after women and power and peace of mind. I've half-heartedly sought wisdom and single-mindedly pursued passion. I suppose I'm always looking for attention, even though I seldom leave the house. Socially awkward, you know.

Maybe I've caught just enough of everything I've wanted, to know that there's nothing I need.

My prizes are the memories of the love I've known along the way. In my naivete, I have thought that maybe I could manipulate who I am, what other folks thought of me. Turns out that I'm the same person who was scared to death and, thrilled as well, to start that first day of school. 

Every stray is just looking for love. Me, too.