Walking Around…

The older I get, the more I know, the less I understand.” Growing up in a protected, small Midwestern farm community, I was often a bit perplexed by what I witnessed the grown-ups doing. I’d resolved in my mind early on that when I got older, when I would finally have arrived in adulthood, I would come to understand as logical and well thought out things I had initially found a bit bewildering.

As I grew from a small child, moving ever closer to the golden gated vault of adulthood and knowledge, I became more and more concerned because many of these oddities, these bumps or warps in logic time space continuum still seemed to confuse and confound me.

Perhaps when I am finally given my pass, my key, my nod to approach and enter these things will all become clear… But the older I got, the closer I got, the more I doubted.

Then that day finally arrived. To be honest, I am not sure which day that was. In fact, I am certain it was not a day, rather a period of time in which began the bestowing, the betrothal, the gowning, and the gifting of these new eyes…

My head bowed low, my eyes closed, my ears on either side of my head, nose, chin, and hair. Check. I slowly raised my head and looked out to the world with my new eyes and understanding…

Nope, nadda, nix, no way, negative, absolutely not… These things that I looked at as idiotic, bizarre, strange, and downright foolish lo so many years ago were, in fact, even with my new ears, eyes, nose, and… Well, you get it. These things, these happenings, these PEOPLE, were in FACT idiots, bizarre, strange, and downright dense… And dense is just a block away and around the corner from ignorant.

So, as I have been walking around in adulthood for many circles of the sun now, I have come to understand that upon arriving at this place, the school yard bullies, the jocks without socks, the nerds, and the girls with mirrors and brushes had arrived pretty much intact.   They simply have more expensive toys, more means to be mean, they can drive, stay up really late, and vote… Yep. They can vote. And they are all around us. In fact, they are us.

But do take a deep breath. “There is much fresh air too. There is much good news. Yes. Those kids who would sit, knees up, sketch pads on laps, in the corners of hallways, lunch rooms, and study halls? With their various H and B-type lead pencils?” They have grown up to be creative Gods and Goddesses, revealing on paper and canvas with leads and oils and paints our, yes, our inner feelings and thoughts. And they have expressed them to a tee. As if they were us. As they are. And those kids who would hump chemistry and biology, and trigonometry, and computer lab books on their hips like so many mothers hefting so many newborns?

They’ve discovered with their passions the potions and prescriptions and bits and bites and grams and parts per billion that have catapulted our collective knowledge going forward exponentially. And recall those kids in the hallways making characters out of their imaginations, and acting as the class clowns? Well, well most of them you will be getting your burgers and fries from, some you may toss a few coins to and still other may be getting released into a community near you soon, but a few, just a few have grown up into be the sometimes challenging, occasionally controversial, frequently enlightening and amusing splendid and remarkable we enjoy everywhere from local stages to television and movies.   And even some of those jocks? We’ve never had such great sports entertainment venues as we do today.

Wow.

So now back to the losers and self-centered, and teachers’ pets – those eraser dust-covered tattle tales who now are our media types. The politicians who focus much more on their next election than on their constituents’ needs and concerns… And the plethora of school yard trash who have come to places of manipulation and confounding of the rest of us. The ones that make us shake our heads, and cuss beneath our breaths, and sometimes spit on the ground…

They’re the few causing issues for the rest of us. Just like in grade school. Long before we were Walking Around in Adulthood.