Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?

 

 

 

One of my favorite songs is “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” by The Lovin’ Spoonful. I think that there is more than a spoonful of wisdom there, especially for the “Z” Generation. So often life’s major choices come down to minor decisions. That butterfly wing in your youth can blow you away in your old age.

 

No matter who you are, if you make it past fifty, old age is going to catch up with you and eventually you will die. If you make something of yourself your family will grieve all way to the reading of the will, and if you died while pushing a grocery cart, they won’t claim your body! Either way they will show you disrespect either behind closed doors or to your face because in the foolishness of their youth they believe they’re the masters of the universe while they are “Slip Sliding Away.”

 

As Moses was up on Sinai meeting with God the Democrat Party was walking through the valley of the shadow of death like they had good sense. The more things change, the more they stay the same.  With manna still clinging to their teeth they were exemplifying every one of the sins outlined in the Ten Commandments! Free shekels for everyone! Welcome to the jungle! Then Father Time caught up with them, and it’s been Monday for the Jews ever since.

 

Young people are smart but they’re not wise. Smart enough to recite facts but not wise enough to know what they mean. Cognitive ability increases over time. And the stupid, not the bad die young. The bad kill the good. I’m sorry to be the first to have to tell you that.

 

If you go looking for justice, you’ll go crazy. If you try to reason with your grandkids, you’ll go crazier! You just can’t get there from here. I’ve been looking for tender memories for forty years and three sets of grandkids. I watch reruns of the Waltons with a great deal of amusement. File that under “fiction.” Any hillbilly kid in Appalachia who goes by the name of “John Boy” does not own a typewriter. The Waltons was a show painting depression era situations with a sixties paint brush. Myself, I learned to write on a Big Chief tablet with a number two pencil. That’s why for years I was such a lazy writer with short, Hemingway sentences. Sharpened the pencil with a butcher knife.

 

Kids these days do not understand value. Back in my day (by crickitty) we had silver certificates. If you remember them then you have chronic constipation too. A silver certificate was backed by real silver. With little effort you could get a silver dollar for one of them. Dimes were silver, half dollars were silver, the fillings in your teeth were silver, and you could hold the value right there in your hand. I recently had a grandson ask me to give him my card to by some upgrade for a game he was playing. Twenty-seven dollars for “Roblox!” Whatever! When I tried to explain the value of money to him (don’t ever try that) he told to me that it was just internet money. Shut the front door!

 

Back when I was eight years old, I knew quite well that Superman couldn’t really fly, but inside I hoped that Tinkerbelle could. Kids these days will buy any myth from there is no Jesus to Kamala is a virgin. Why do you need Jesus when you have Google? Their Oracles have become  “influencers!” Just let one of those charlatans kick the bucket and they BELIEVE!

 

And through all this they’re getting a little bit older and a little bit slower, but they’re not getting a little bit smarter, and they still don’t have anything of value to say, unless they are talking about Taylor Swift. Talk for an hour and ain’t said crap.

 

And  they were given Joe Biden. Here’s your sign!! News flash! Biden has left the building! And what do you do when you’re left holding your face? You nominate a Cackle Babble Head in a Box! And they flocked to her like she speaks their language. Don’t sit under the coconut tree with anyone else but me. Because she’s as clueless as they are. Putin and Xi will pass her back and forth like a party favor. And they’ll call that “World Piece!”

 

So where is all this going. Well, it takes about two thousand years for true wisdom to ferment. Socrates, Aristotle, you know, cats like that. Then we hear it, but we don’t do it. But at least we hear it. And by the time we do we’re too far into dementia to listen. Did you ever notice the message is always the same? Carved in stone or on a hard drive. . . always the same. And we stand back snake amazed and give ourselves a Koolaid enema. Did you ever have to make up your mind?

I still remember the Waltons.

Good night, Mary Ellen,

Good night, Grandpa!

Are you still awake, Mary Ellen?

 

The more things change the more they stay the same!