Objects In Rear MIrror Are Closer Than They Appear
Driving back from work I cut in front of a car to make the off ramp that would take me home. I saw a face in in the rear mirror: weathered woman, about 50, smoking a cigarette and swearing at me. She continued cussing at me as we entered 147, and wouldn't let up until she finally passed me on the highway. Again that weathered face... alcoholic, bitter... this big mugging, sarcastic face. Driving a beat up Buick Skylark with all its paint baked off from the sun.
We tend to preserve the memory of our lost loved ones in some idyllic and angelic time capsule. They were perfect, and they would have surely gone on to greatness if they had not been cut down too early to realize their magnificent potential. But this weathered woman - that face - that too could have been Theresa. Maybe she was spared from the mundanity and monotony of life. Hey 19, keep your dreams forever.
posted by John Allore @ 7/26/2009 09:09:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I hear you, John!
Lord knows I've had my share of experiences like this.
I believe all of us are haunted by these ghosts we call the "what-ifs." They tend to sneak up on us when we don't expect them.
"What if I had done this instead of that way back then?" is a question we can never answer. We lost the chance to find out. Going back in time to change something is not an option.
My dear little brother was handsome, charming, clever, witty, and the ladies couldn't resist him. I like to think that such traits would have made him quite successful in life if he were alive today. But, truth be told, we have no such guarantees.
Remember Cher? I still hear her on the radio sometimes, singing "If I could turn back time..."
I believe that every one of Debbie Key's friends still wishes he/she was at Sticks & Stones the night she went missing.
If Theresa were alive today, would she still be cute and funny? Would she be a happy mom living the good life? There's no way of really knowing.
Yet, those questions we can't answer are the ones that keep confronting us from time to time.
You could be driving home from work on a Friday thinking, "Oh boy! Another work week done, another weekend begins!"
And then...
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