Comings and Goings

You know the old joke on the bar wall; you read it when you were young and foolish.  I qualify.

 

"Everyone brightens this place, some by their coming and some by their going"

 

Good for a chuckle but not a guffaw.  I guess what makes it less funny for me is there is more going than coming these days.  People who matter to me - Going.  People who have been part of my life - Going.  People who I wanted to know better - Gone.  Looking at and talking to a gravestone is too one way for me.

 

That's why I value relationships at 61 like I should have when I was 31. The friend pool shrinks at 61.  Oh I'm still hard to get along with.  Curmudgeonly as ever.  Full of opinions (I can't help that I'm right so much).  Willing to share them.  But that's not the problem.  They just keep changing worlds.  Goodbyes.

 

On the other hand, people who I like and consider day brighteners  in my life seem to feel the same about me. I guess that's a good thing.  Even when I'm mean (they used to call me Mean Gene as a kid) I try very hard to give positive reinforcement and encouragement to people around me.  I never ever do it insincerely.  I can always find a good word to say or say nothing at all.  That's not true of groups.  I've been pretty hard on liberals lately.  But if you believe that's about you, you put you there.  I didn't.  I don't suffer fools well.  I won't call someone a fool.  But I don't deal with people well who just don't want to participate in honest discourse.  That's even me sometimes.  Sometimes I'm not sure even I would like me. Sigh.

 

So, I plow on.  Saying hello's to goodbyes at the rate of 2-1.  I hope I don't run out soon. 

 

Getting old is heck.