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Jul 11

4 Comments

Peter Pan or Wendy?

“All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!’ This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

∞ ∞ ∞

This week’s Query is about being an adult…or not being an adult…  Well, it’s hard to tell.

Click the link below to see how people answered this question:

How do you know when you’re an Adult?

Like all the other Queries, this is pretty much up for debate and interpretation.

Is it responsibility for a human other than yourself?  Or is being responsible for yourself enough to tip the scales from childhood to adulthood?  And does that mean responsibility for yourself financially or emotionally or physically, or all of the above?  Is it putting the non-essential pursuits on the back burner, the ones that don’t put food on the table, clothes on your back and a roof over your head?  The answers are a little different for everyone.  And I have to wonder, is there even such a thing as grown up?

Of course, there are people who seemed to have been born as adults.  Maybe that’s just my perception because they’re a bit more serious, or more driven or ambitious than I am.  On the other hand, there are people who never seem to grow up at all.  Again it’s perception: daring or reckless? care-free or irresponsible? fun-loving or immature?  It depends on what side of the Or Fence you’re on, doesn’t it?

The thing is, I still like to carve pumpkins, and I get excited at the thought of Halloween candy.  And Christmas presents, both the giving and the receiving.  And puppies…swinging on a swing…and going down a slide if the occasion calls for it.  Okay, even if the occasion doesn’t call for it.

Oh, and Pixar movies, Harry Potter, fireflies, ice cream cones, Scooby Doo…

I think some things are just who we are, and not about whether we’re an adult or a child.

Peter Pan was a kid through and through.  Wendy went all the way to Neverland, and naturally took on the role of mother.  You just are who you are.

Who are you?

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Jul 9

29 Comments

I’m with the Band!

I love the nightlife.  I like to boogie.

Okay, not really.  But if I did, I figured I’d be out of luck in Fredericksburg.  I mean, we don’t get a lot of action around here.  This isn’t New York City, after all; we roll up our streets at 10pm.  But it used to be eight, so there’s progress for ya.

Wasn’t I just reminiscing and mooning over the lost simplicity of my little old home town?  Wasn’t I just waxing nostalgic for the way it was?  Some people are just never satisfied.

Sure we have ten times more restaurants and shopping centers than we did when I was a kid.    But I perceive our growth as sprawl: getting ever wider, without moving up.  Despite all the development, it’s still so…mundane.  Where’s the vibrancy?  Where’s the fun?  *sigh*  This town is so boring.

What’s that?  No.  Um…  No.  Well… continue reading…

Jul 6

6 Comments

Dust

.

I gaze upon the room,
and lifetimes spent here
shift across my vision.

I cross the creaking
floorboards, hay-covered,
and open spaces gape up
at me like some wide
and toothless grin.

I grope along walls
all newsprint papered,
fingers peeling back
a layer of years,
and the yellowed records
of days gone by
leave their handprints on me.

I breathe in the dust
of so many lives past,
and their memories,
floating in the air around me,
swirl ‘round and then,
catching in some slanted ray,
shine one still moment
and flutter silent
to the ground.

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Jul 4

11 Comments

Infinity Reveals Itself

My friend at Atoms of Thought recently said that “infinity reveals itself in all things”.

I was inclined to disagree, or perhaps I simply didn’t understand his meaning.  I thought, “We are surrounded by the finite.” There are brick walls all around us, in every direction we turn.  The vastness of the world may be beyond the scope of our true comprehension, yet it is nonetheless contained.  And everything within and upon it is in some way likewise contained.

Even the limits of our imagination are constrained within the bounds of our own experience.  You can imagine and dream beyond what you have done, seen, read, felt, heard – but only in relation to those experiences.  Imagination can build upon what you already know, but can you really create something out of thin air, without reference of any kind?

Anyway, that’s where my thoughts carried me.  The next day, I took this picture: continue reading…

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