18-In a New York minute
The Muse woke me up at four this morning and, though I grumbled a little, I got up, wondering what it was. So much is going on, it was hard to know what might be bothering her so early and I am still not sure. But the coffee is on and here I sit.
I was driving to class last night, on Halloween, on a windy, rainy night, watching the silver maples and pin oaks bragging their oranges and reds to the cedars and pines, when an old friend ran into me. I hadn’t met Earl and his wife until he slid into me in a slow motion, wet road, Halloween, a car dance at the intersection of highway 72 and Lewis road.
He almost got his Ford stopped before he hit me, but he knocked me into Ron, who was turning left on his way to be with his kids on this cool Halloween evening.
No one was hurt, though Ron was hoping he had won the Insurance Jackpot and I am sure he will be busy stealing our premiums early this morning. It was just like $5000 bumper cars!
It was a while before the trooper got there and my muse suggested
I take a history on Earl, just to pass the time. Seems he is 71 and was down in
Chester visiting his sister in law, whose husband died here three months back of prostate cancer (he called it prostrate cancer which I’m sure was accurate). (Earl: I am alright dear just stop fussing over me and go sit in the car before you catch a chill....
(Earl’s wife: You know he is a diabetic and had open heart surgery just two years ago, she advised me, and went to take care of him from the car)
Seems Earl served in the Navy before returning to Rock Hill and worked for 35 years at a local plant and raised his daughter , who hasn't been up to see him in 12 years, but she’s busy with her own life and all, ya know.........
Well the trooper did his thing and I was soon on my way, when I realized that the Eagles New York Minute was on the tape player(In a New York Minute... everything can change) and I thought about my daughter, who won’t give me a minute’s rest and thinks I know everything ... and nothing.... and who I see (mainly hear) everyday. This is her last Halloween, as the Mommonster has decreed that she will be too old to go trick or treating next year (it was this year, but Lee and I appealed and won her a one year stay of execution.... sometimes the Mommonster can be manipulated but I know it will cost me somehow.)
So I steered my car away from the university and my class and towards home and pretty soon, there we were again, playing out the Halloween ritual. Me in my cap and jacket wishing that at least my legs were still 22, and Lee in her princess outfit (she will always be a princess.... no matter what she and Mommonster and the years dress her up to be) and Rob in his Pirate outfit (Mom wont let me wear a mask, Daddy. She says I couldn't see well enough. I would have been Death this year, he says from behind his eye patch.) As they ran from door to door, collecting candy and memories,
I thought about Earl and the daughter he hasn't seen in twelve years.
I get busy in my life and lose track and sight of what is important, and forget that, in a New York Minute, everything can change. I heard a guy on a talk show the other day pose the question; if this were the last day of your life, how would you spend it? Would I care about a crumpled fender or a missed class? Thinking like that always takes me home, to my princess and her pirate brother and our Mommonster, and to my mother and father, and brothers and all the people that populate my handful of sand on the endless landscape of reality. It awakens my Muse, and so here I sit.
© Dave Seward, October 1995
We take a handful of sand from an endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.
Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
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