Friday, July 29, 2005

Santa's A Scam

That was the front page headline of the Christmas 1993 issue of Free Verse magazine, a little underground publication put out by my brother and his friends. I had forgotten all about it until I came across it today as I was cleaning out some old files. As I sat and read through it I had a good chuckle. Those were good days back then. I was young, naive and ready to take on the world.

A whole lot has happened in my life since 1993 but here are some tidbits from the past 13 years:
  • I got married
  • Received one speeding ticket
  • Changed vehicles 7 times
  • Moved 10 times
  • Changed jobs 13 times
  • Learned to play bass
  • Saw a Major League Baseball game in Seattle
  • Tore my ACL 3 times
  • Saw a Ray Charles concert before he died
  • Attended a Norm Stockton bass clinic
  • Taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • Became a foster parent
  • Became a member of my church
  • Paid off my student loans

In the middle of Free Verse was a regular feature called Poet's Corner. One particular poem caught my eye.

Ignorance

Wisdom all around me
I listen to your sound
hearing what you say
but going my own way.

- Myriad
I'm a lot older now (and a lot heavier) but the irony is that I still haven't lived half of my life yet. I feel like I've learned a lot but I also feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

I don't think I'll every truly be wise, not like Solomon, but someday, maybe, I'll have learned to listen to the voice of wisdom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting poem to resurface after more than 10 years. There's actually a bit of insight there.

And just to clarify, I had very little to do with publishing Free Verse. I think all I ever got published there was an embarassing christmas wish list... I forget what my 'pen name' was then...

Unknown said...

efa: And just to clarify, I had very little to do with publishing Free Verse.

Funny how all the people I talked to said the same thing...