May 14
THE LONG VIEW
The long view requires an enduring embrace of the past. It requires a great love of people, the race
and individuals. I cannot see what we do
and flee. I can own what happened, what
happens and what is to come if only so I can ratchet improvement into my own
behavior. I can see and feel and change,
cringe if I must, but go on. The horizon
is there to set the stage. It hangs
there long and low. It stands guard for
the life there is to live. I will view
it and use it as my gauge. Keeping
perspective is the key. I know it for
what it is and that makes me, me. The
short sight and the long view. My open
arms hold it all; my sight brings it all into my heart.
Floss between the
permanent ideas in your mind.
*
Life Events in Burlap
Two left feet in a gunnysack allows no forward motion
and creates only a windmill that screws us into the ground.
There is more perspective, front and back, more view,
but nothing to do with it, nowhere to go.
We are better off as book ends than this awkward foolish
pairing.
You go your way and I go mine works fine if we are cut
lose,
if any one person can be free of any other.
You offer to change your perspective if I change mine.
I smile, almost laugh at the idea of two right feet in a
gunnysack
and no improvement in sight.
This is not grade school, not field day,
I must turn to you or you to me and nothing else,
no fair is fair, no turn taking.
Because my past is not your future
and your future is not my past.
Face forward on both accounts and then we run the race.
You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane
and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
