When I'm eighty, I want to live in the last home in the United States that's bathroom has wallpaper. I want to play CandyLand by board, not disk, and dance in a kitchen grounded by wood instead of stone. I want to give everything I've ever worked for to someone who's never owned something worth giving away. My children can have their childhood posessions and their favorite home trinkets, but I'm not leaving behind money to let them grow lazy; they can work like my parents worked and I'll have worked, and they can save up for themselves. I'd rather a stranger who's three states away and has never crossed my path be the one who reaps what they did not earn, for the simple fact that everyone deserves to be loved by a stranger, at some point, for simply being alive.
When I'm eighty,
I'll put a vase on the table and fill it with my favorite colored roses,
and I refuse to throw them away after they wilt.
I'll make a snow angel, take a picture, and send it to my granddaughter, so that she knows I find her prettier than Christmasmorningsnow.
I'll look through old yearbooks and shrug at past regrets, there's never going to be enough time to own up to every sour word that my quick tongue has ever lashed out. So instead, when I'm eighty, I'll hug someone in the middle of the lip balm aisle in Walgreens and tell them that I'm sorry they've been hurt. I'll tell the stranger, but I'll be hoping that every past regret hears the words.
And if they don't
I'll be okay.
Because I'm eighty
and there's not enough time.
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2 comments:
this made me tihnk.
when im forty, i want to make a stangers day.
Every christmas eve, we drive through KFC> we pay for the people behind us. and then we give each person working there that night a crisp $20 bill.
This year, we had to go to applebees instead. it was one fucking expensive meal. (14 workers..)
My dad, when he uts someone off on the way to starbucks, he pays for their drink.
ive always loved that he did that.
but i love it even more when he does it at random. just, to make a random person smile.
i look up to him for that. I look up to You for that, what you wrote in your post.
I hope to be that giving when i grow up. Id love to say I will be, but. i really cant be sure until i get there.
Aww, Bec! What your dad does is really cute. Mine's always been big on giving stranger's rides, but then turning around to tell me how it's dangerous and stupid. Woof, role models! :)
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