The Monthly Rag

I woke up at 6:38 AM this morning. It is a Sunday. My wife is running with a friend of here for preparation of a marathon. I can’s sleep. So what do you do if you can t sleep and you don’t have television? I browse the interwebs for interesting stories and news. The interwebs are a varied and wonderful things. I learned about how the Russians are trying to cover up the shooting down of MH17 (the Malaysian Airliner that was shot down over Ukraine), the passing of a wonderful man and great actor, James Garner, and even saw the singer Rianna do something with her gluteus maximus that defies explanation. Then I realized something…I am old.

Most young people, when faced with a weekend of nothing planned, would use a quiet Sunday morning for sleeping in. I have reached that age where trying to sleep more is physically painful. There is the tell tale sounds of joints cracking and such. It is more comfortable to sit up in the Lay-Z-Boy and stumble through the world wide web than try to even grasp a couple hours more sleep. Maybe that is why I have seen so many older folks out there up really early in the day. It isn’t because of some old idiom or anything like that; it is because it hurts to sleep longer.

I noticed that I was getting old four years ago. I went to the barber and as she was cutting my hair, she asked if I needed my eyebrows and ears trimmed. That my friend is the first sign. Not that your eyebrows are trying to bridge the gap into a neanderthallic unibrow, but that the hair becomes excessively long. Also, hair starts to sprout from places where it should not be; like the cartilage areas of your ears and ear canals. Nose hair seems to grow like it is on steroids. It is insane! You can trim, pluck, and burn, but the battle is never won.

I am thirty-nine years old. I have successfully made it with out permanent injury through childhood. Survived the awkward pre-teen and teen years. Glided through the twenties with ease and have almost surpassed my thirties. I guess now, however, there is a price to pay for surviving this long.

Sitting here in the quiet of my house allows me to ponder life. In the almost four decades of my existence, this world has not really improved. We have war, terror, natural disaster, and all the misery that is the result. Man still cannot say to another, “hey, we are of the same species. Lets get along.”  Nope. There is still squabbling over “class” and “race”. Who the hell cares if your language sounds like indigestion, we are all the same!

I have traveled most of my adult life. I have been to Asia, the Middle East, Europe. I have met many different people. All of the people that I have met and befriended have been decent people. I almost think that the problems in this world are generated my the powers that be so that the general populace has to rely on them for their protection from the ones they started the problems with. Kind of like my theory on anti-virus companies. I think they make the viruses so they can have a captive clientele to pander their wares.

I could be wrong about this all. But one thing I am right on, we are all getting older. We have all had experiences that we learn from. Lets take this combined knowledge and share it so we can all learn from each other’s mistakes and triumphs.  Lets all just take the time and sit in our quiet houses, early on a Sunday morning and reflect back on our lives and accomplishments. Lets all just take a moment in our busy lives to just breathe and feel alive, rather than just a piece if the machine. Lets all just try to regain our humanity.

If only that would work…

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