More than Necessary

"For the first two years of a child's life, we spend every waking hour trying to get the child to communicate. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how we can reverse the process." -Erma Bombeck

Parents have the fantastic job of having a child. Then raising them. Which means feeding, burping, taking care of, getting scratched in the face, performing potty duty, and waking up at 2 AM to soothe the crying child while being frustrated because they don’t know what the baby wants. What parent doesn’t want their child to start talking?

Then the kid reaches the “terrible two’s”. He/she can crawl and walk now, say “no” to nearly everything, and eat a decent array of food. Most of all, they know a basic amount of vocabulary. Unfortunately, if the parents hadn’t supervised their language, the poor innocent kid might be reciting some curse words now and then. Cute, but not good. Regret #1.

Ah, school. It gets more interesting. The child begins to learn more foreign languages, and new information. With no one else to tell their profound discoveries, they unload it in a messy barrage on their parents. “Di’ you know da numba 8 has two circles in it?! COOL!” Regret #2.

And then comes the more dreaded part--puberty and the teenage years. Yes, we understand the mood swings, the different voices, and the modified body parts. But what many parents don’t understand is why their teenagers start getting upset with them for no reason, and refuse to listen. Did puberty plug their ears with something, too?...besides an iPod? Regret #3.

Off to college and beyond. Believe me, I bet parents would be bald by this point after pulling at their hair, wishing their children could just shut up. Luckily, their child finds the special someone. Then they’re whisked away, gone from the house faster than the time it took to spank, feed, house, and raise them. Now the parents wished they had anything at all to talk to…besides to each other. Regr--well, no regrets.

-the clam.

Will You

Is bottled water better than tap water? It’s not like tap water is particular dirty; it does have to go through a filtering process. Plenty of bottled water is perhaps filtered just as much, or maybe less. Plus, bottled water uses plastic, and it sure does cost a lot to ship it, bottle it, and make the plastic. Tap water also has fluoride in it……………

Can things really become worse, purely because of the perceptions it has taken? If people think Yao Ming is really overrated, is he? Can what those outside of this thing’s direct contact really affect the actual, absolute quality of whatever is being judged? Can a musician(s) become terrible, overrated, and despised to someone just because of the way others think about it? Are we so gullible? Are we so needy that outside perceptions will affect what we think of something? Of course it will happen, but can it happen in a drastic manner? If someone says Alex Rodriguez sucks at the clutch, and always has, does that mean him hitting in a few game winning RBIs or HRs in the playoffs mean he got lucky for a game? Can that restaurant suddenly have bad food once you start to despise their waiters? Can a band start to become watered down once others have caught on?

Does anybody else reading this ever get annoyed at people who are overtly trying to, or are trying to seem to be, green? Actually, screw that, this can be anything really, not just being green, any other little niche too. Maybe they just try to shove it on you too much, but really, whoever said they were (insert here?) in the first place. Maybe you just played a benefit concert for that old dude who lost the election way back when, you probably got there in gas-guzzling private airplane, not to mention the stretched hummer you used to get to and from the airport.

I think its nice to know that something’s a bit funny with little kids running around at night (Halloween specifically) asking for money? Aren’t cute little kids with money in a box also completely defenseless little kids with lots of money that are just waiting to be tripped. Plus, their candy is probably going to get taken, or at least crushed on the floor. You’d UNICEF could think of better ways to advertise and get donations, rather than well, getting little kids beat up, because well, that’s kind of the opposite of what their supposed to do...

I honestly wondered what would happen if people just sat down, and wrote one big long paragraph on why, specifically why, they loved such a poet, musician, band, author, painter, filmmaker, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Would you kind of gain an insight into them selves?...maybe see why they appreciate that particular thing so much? Who knows I guess…

Dead weight

-dgitaldelay

Words Left Unsaid

There are moments when you oh so desperately want to say something, but you just can’t. You may consider it for a moment or two. Maybe even open your mouth to say it, only to retract the unspoken statement. Maybe you’ve been dying to say something, but don’t have the courage. Maybe you don’t want to cause conflict even though something horrible is bothering you. Maybe what you were going to say was just plain rude. My point is; second thoughts matter.

Someone was being hurt. By you? You could not stop. It was uncontrollable. And when the blows came until nothing was left, you felt guilty. Maybe anger has blinded you. Perhaps revenge? That apology was on the tip of your tongue. But they didn’t deserve it. Did they?

Someone was being hurt by someone else? You could’ve stopped it. You could’ve said something or even screamed for help. Perhaps you just stood there and watched as they pleaded. Maybe even encourage the pain. Or maybe, like a coward, you ran away. They could be innocent. They could be guilty. Either way, nobody deserved this. But the image was etched and scarred through your mind. And the memory played over and over again in your mind until you knew every bloody detail by heart.

You were being hurt. Stop her! Your brain screams. Why are you letting her do this to you? But no, you know how this will end. She will twist your words, no matter how carefully chosen, and make herself the victim. It will not be stopped. So you kept quiet and it continued. Maybe got even worse. And each day, you question your strength. And you make up excuses for yourself. Or tell yourself that it’s not that bad. It’s going to be okay, even when it’s not.

And when you think about all the bad people in this world, you wonder when it will ever end. But you never look at the children and think that one of those little boys bugging his mom for ice cream is going to grow up to hit my best friend, or shove a gun in my father’s face while demanding for money, or slip drugs into a girl’s drink. But some of them might grow up to be the one to find the cure for cancer, end world hunger, or become the best United States president we ever had. The potential and possibilities are endless. Maybe a few words could change that.

Maybe you just wanted to say hello. To the new girl? Or maybe you’re the new kid and you just can’t bring yourself to say hi to the person sitting next to you. So you duck your head down and hide behind you history textbook, pretending to be interested in the architecture of Aztec pyramids.

Or goodbye. You were leaving forever. And you left without a word. No apologies or farewells. Maybe you were running away. But you never saw them ever again.

Maybe you wanted to tell someone how you really feel. You’re tired of pretending. No dad, I don’t want to go to Yale like you did. I’m going to an art school. Maybe you want to tell your kids that you’re divorcing each other. Maybe you want to tell someone that you love them or someone else that you don’t anymore.

Maybe you can DO something. Actions speak louder than words. But I know that I have said and done things I regret. I also regret NOT saying or doing something. Maybe second thoughts aren’t the best. But remember that they make a difference.

-mourning.glory