I hate growing up.
All throughout my childhood, my mother would read to me from a myriad of different books before bed. When I was very young and my attention span was not yet ready for Tolstoy or Nabokov (she didn't read Lolita to me until I was a preteenager), one of my favorite works of literature was called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
In this book Alexander finds that from the moment he wakes up it seems that the Gods have conspired to make his life a living hell. He wakes up with gum in his hair, drops his sweater in the sink, is told that he sings too loud, and gets his foot caught in the elevator. His mantra throughout the book is that he is moving to Australia. The entire gist of the book is that everyone has bad days and that having a bad day is no reason to up and leave everything you know and love. You'll have bad days in Australia too. It is the naivete of childhood that allows Alexander to believe that Australia is the solution to all of his problems. Logical, rational adults know that running away from your problems is just a short term solution to the real problem: the utter disappointment of life.
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Glad to see you back, Anna...I missed you!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite movie is "The Road Warrior," because I could always relate to the loner Mad Max (especially when he was eating dog food out of a can - for some reason, that scene really touched me). That, of course, took place in Australia, and didn't exactly have a happy ending.
He did, however, have a way of making the disappointment of life look glamorous. Leather-clad, with a wary look in his eye...he had lost everyone he loved (even his dog) and was left standing alone in the dust of the Apocalypse...but he looked so darned cool! It's much, much harder to deal with life's boredom and disappointment when you have to plaster on a smile and deal with baby showers, bridal showers, dinner parties, or house-guests (my own cross to bear this past weekend). It's hard to look cool when the people around you are holding up "onesies" and oohing and ahhing. Yuck!
Well, anyway. It's good to hear your voice again, and I hope something magical happens to you this week! (And to me, too; I've been in my "Nothing good will ever happen to me again" mood the last couple of days, and it's rather depressing!)
Anna,
ReplyDeleteSo good to see you back. Please don't go to Australia! It's wintertime down there and your new wardrobe will be out of season. :)
Hope to see more of you on here!
--No. 4 of your four loyal readers
Hey Anna,
ReplyDeleteI'm grown up too, but not. I mean, I have all the big bills from remodeling my house, but I feel like it's all good. You just have to use autopay I think. or something like that. I don't like to worry about shit because it's exactly that: SHIT!
Anyways, I miss you my old friend. I remember when we were laying on the beach one day looking up at the sky saying how we would always be friends... and I believe that's true except when you focus on the shit. The shit keeps you old, keeps you from getting in your car and hanging with people who inspired you once. Dont worry, be spontaneous and let's go do yoga or take a hike.