Well, it appears my Thanksgiving will be coming a bit sooner this year.. this weekend to be exact. Normally, we'd all head up to Springdale to stay in or around my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Shirley's house and meet most of the family there... this year, it looks like everyone is being pulled in all different sorts of directions and that won't be possible. Thankfully though, I'll be able to sleep in the Friday after. :)
So... that's the Thanksgiving part, now for the shoulder pain part... wow. I haven't hurt this bad in ... ever. I don't know what I did to it, but it's like someone twisted my shoulder around three times and then popped it really good with their fist. It feels a bit like a constant neck pain, like the kind when you sleep wrong and wake up not able to turn your head one way.. Well, this has gone on for several days now and it just doesn't look like there is any relief in site. I'm sure there is, and I'm sure, like everything else, this will pass.. c'est la vie.
I'm sure this isn't the wise, learned, thoughtful commentary you've been expecting to hear tonight. You pull up a blog to read some deep statement and you get a health report. Well, let's see. Let's see if I can start right now and throw something profound in here off the top of my head.
So, I was thinking about this shoulder pain thing for about five seconds and... well, honestly, I don't know what I realize but I'm going to keep typing and just show you what comes out. There is no forethought to any of this, only what my fingers type. I literally don't even have sentences formed when I'm typing. I see the very next word in line and hope it creates a complete thought when included with the one behind and before. Hm.. that worked. I have no idea how I can make some sort of parallel between my aching shoulder and some point of order in the universe... and I'm sure some of you.. or maybe none of you, will comment and say, well, you could see it as pain that you suffer through and it's indicative of the things we labor through even when it hurts to reach those things we really desire.. and all that... but I'm looking for something really deep.
Did you know there are only 1,000 tigers left in the wild? That saddens me, that we've taken some of the most beautiful creatures and destroyed them... wiped them out. It sort of draws me to the conclusion that we're regressing. We've become so adept at technology, but can anyone solve a calculus problem without pulling out their calculator? There were those in the early 19th century who could.. We have computers to spell for us, figure things out for us, we have Google to ask for definitions, synonyms, antonyms (and no, I spelled those all myself ;) )... we have GPS because it seems no one can remember directions anymore.
When was the last time someone told you, "You're going to turn left on this street, then pass four houses and then..." before you interrupted them and said, "Oh, I have it on Google maps, just give me your address.." When was the last time you just opened the door and walked into a relatives house...
One of my fondest memories is walking into Mam-maw and Pap-paw's house while they were gone.. feeling like we lived there. We didn't do that at anyone elses.. I do it at my parent's house now.. so I guess it's the same thing. But as a kid.. it was so much different... there was a red crayon jammed into the door lock from goodness knows when for probably as long or longer than I've been born... and they never bothered to change it (it's been changed recently) and we would walk in and there was always this faint smell of cooking.. or apples.. or pears.. fresh. Like they'd just been picked out of the tree. We seemed to usually arrive on Wednesday nights or Sunday nights, and they were at church when we got there. No matter how tired I was, I always wanted Mam-maw to cook me a little hamburger.. those were THE best... I wish I could cook one like that.
I remember being half-asleep, helping, or not helping, to make the bed then doing the prayer in the middle of the living room all together, with Pap-paw praying out loud... I almost always finished before he did, but even since the first time, even when I didn't know for sure, I always knew.. you waited for Pap-paw to finish before you moved.. and he'd finish and then we'd get up and go on to bed. On summer nights, he'd walk around and spray stam or some sort of mosquito repellent on the windows... and you'd lay there awake and listen to the weird sounding bugs or frogs outside.
We're so closed off now.. we have our privacy fences and our garages. Most people I know, pull into the driveway, open the garage, pull into the garage, close the garage and get out. They never even talk to their neighbors. My mom does.. but I'm not sure if that sort of neighborhood will ever exist again once my parent's generation stops.
I want to add that to my bucket list.. but I don't want to do 101 things or it'll look cheesy like.. 101 things to do when you're bored.. but my 100.0 thing to do would be to know my neighbors. Know their kids, their kid's birthdays, their birthdays, their ups and downs... ins and outs.. I want it to be said of me when I die that I brought everyone together. That I pulled for everyone to win. I want two people to be able to look at each other and say.. "If it weren't for DeJuan, I'd have never met you and now you're my best friend.. "
I don't know how to start that.. actually, I don't know how to start most of the items on my bucket list... I can't read all 100 books tonight.. I probably won't finish them in 10 years... (well, at the rate I'm going now, maybe 10 months..) but it's just a step in that direction.
And if you want to do the same.. stop rushing about so much.. talk to someone next to you on the bus, train, grocery line.. introduce yourself.. they will probably look at you funny.. but it's not because it's weird.. it's because it's uncommon! Be an uncommon person. Be a person who takes the moment and lives it... Let's not settle into out robotic modes of life.. that isn't living at all.
I'll close now.. but with a quote from one of my all time favorite movies.. Meet Joe Black. It's a quote about REALLY loving someone but I think it can be applied to almost anything in life..
"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived."
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