Five Days

No one actually knows where time goes. In fact, time is so fleeting that, were it not for time pieces, we would age and not know it. Unless, of course, we stared into a pool of water and saw our faces from time to time. Even that pool of water would age as time went by and we would know that by seeing clear water turn cloudy.

With or without that pool of clear water it will be five days until I turn seventy-eight. By itself that is nothing to write home about, which is made impractical as the people in my home as a child are all dead. I am the only one left outside of my wife and family, made new, decades ago. Odd how time goes by. One period of time you feel young and look young then you start seeing differences which you understand means you are moving into a new period of time and you are suddenly surrounded by people who now look as you used to look: young and vital. Not smart as you used to be, but young and vital. Well, some are smart while others follow trends as you used to do. Fashion trends etc, plus, haircuts, leftist glory.

The odd thing is that now you consider the young naive, perhaps, overly protected or maleducated by a system of teaching foreign to you. You’re probably correct about the teaching aspect but the rest may just be jealousy or, and this is the part that sinks in gradually, those younger are doing the same dumb things that you once thought were cooler than cool.

Now you see where some of what you did was destructive and not cool while others were purely daft and you were lucky you weren’t killed being daft or stupid.

In a manner of philosophy, I should not have reached the age I am now, before seventy-eight. I came through two tours of combat unscathed, physically and, in fairness to me, much of my being daft was trying to get over and around combat. The rest was just pure “D” dumb and probably typical. I still drive an old Jeep JK, two door. No off-road now as my old back won’t take it. Actually, I should just sell it and call it a day. Fortunately, I don’t have to sell it and when I’m in the dirt my wife can do with it as she pleases. We all need to face facts and truth more boldly and with less cringing and hiding behind trees. Old trees that will still be here when we are gone.

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