Sunday, November 23, 2014

the (Face)book of Life

One of the things that happens when you log into Facebook is that you realize the pages in the book of life change before you have a chance to read the first chapter.  You see pictures of children who were 3 or 10 or 15 when you last saw them, who are now 15, 20 and graduating from college.  It is a reminder that time is moving too quickly and you have no way to slow it down.

People always say that you need to make the most of each day.  But just how do you do that?  There are 24 hours in each day and you spend 6 or seven of those hours sleeping. This leaves you about 17 hours about which you need to make the most. (I could spend 16 of those hours trying not to end my sentences with a preposition.)  And speaking of sentences, you remember how you learned to diagram a sentence? Well, maybe that’s what we should do with our days. That way we wouldn’t waste any time.

But wasting time is inevitable and that’s not what I wanted to blob about. Yesterday, we (me and Tyrone) got up at 5:30. A little early to start the day, but puppies have to poop when they have to poop. I did not take him outside. He went while I stood at the door.  It took him no time because it was really cold. By the time he was finished it was 5:35. It was too early to do anything but write or make coffee. Or read through Facebook. The Sklar kids who I last saw when they were children, are young adults.  Same with the Simon kids. The people who were young adults when they were an everyday part of our lives, are grown up and have kids of their own (The Sklar parents and the Simon parents who were, when we met,  young political interns or college students (mine).

It was then 8am. We packed it up, put on warm clothing and headed to Kohls to take advantage of the supposed sales. Kohls. The most wonderful thing about shopping at Kohls is that even when the sale doesn’t exist, they tell you how many hundreds of dollars you saved.  By the time we finished shopping it was 10am and I had saved $180.95.  But savings is not what I wanted to blob about.
Anyway, got home, checked email and made a bagel. (One half with an egg and the other with peanut butter.)  Checked Facebook and saw that all the babies in my world were now in elementary school.  So, I did some writing and some work on “Gefilte Fish Chronicles, A Musical”… it is a never ending attempt to celebrate family, mostly mine.

Admittedly, I did not make the most of the rest of the day, until dinner, which I had with my cousin Joan. It was lovely, and we passed the time savoring stories about the things that used to be, and things we hoped would be.

A big part of the way we use the time we have is talking about the past.. remember when this happened or that happened? Or “this used to be a quarter and now it’s a dollar” or gas was $1.25 and now it’s over $3 a gallon. Just stuff. But its one way we turn the pages.

My grandfather always said that life was like a train. Early on you were on the local. Then, as you got older you got on the express.  The good news is that the seats on the  express are hopefully more comfortable and cost of the ticket never changes. There is no bad news. Our days pass too quickly, our birthdays come too soon,it seems  our monthly medication needs to be refilled before we take the first pill and  children grow up too fast.  But that’s not bad news because it just makes the book  more interesting.  We’re just sayin’… Iris

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