WHEN YOU’RE YOUNG, IT’S OKAY to be a dreamer. Your whole life is ahead of you, there are so many choices, so many rewarding possibilities. I can only suspect that I was once a dreamer since I have no specific memory of it. I think that I became an absurdist at an early age. I remember my best friend in elementary school once telling me that I laughed too much. My response was that he was too serious about things. Then he moved away. I grew up, all the accidents that make up one’s life propelled me along my way, there was a brass ring just ahead, then I got sick and learned what an ostomy was. During the ensuing years, I climbed back into the saddle, not thinking that the horse wouldn’t throw me again but that, if he did, I’d land on my feet and keep going, which I did. By then, I was a hard-wired cynic, but still laughing at the absurdity of it all. I had marveled at the talents of the Beatles. “You may say I’m a dreamer,” sang John Lennon, “but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” We all saw what his dreams got him. Some asshole shot him dead on the street. Even so, I look at my beautiful granddaughter now and wonder what she’s dreaming. I shove my cynicism aside and root for her wholeheartedly. I’m dreaming, as it were, that she grabs her brass ring.
HenryM
Feb 09, 2023 8:49 am
