“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
Yesterday the rain left the day humid and damp. Late last night it rained again. This morning is dark and gray. I have absolutely no inclination to go out and about. I might not even get dressed. My iPad has a few new books, perfect ones to while away a day, books with good guys and bad guys, buried treasure and a few murders. I might even watch a bit of TV. Today is deadly bug day on Syfy with wasps, alien insects set on world domination and monstrous spiders. The bugs are the opening act for tonight’s new movie about spiders from the Middle East called camel spiders who have a taste for humans.
I think the young me would approve of the much older me. Back then I had huge dreams and all sorts of ideas about who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go. I saw myself as a lawyer, maybe even the first female Perry Mason, or a teacher, an inspirer, and I knew I’d travel the world to visit places from the pages of my geography books. Even though I was growing up in the 50’s I never thought of being female as limiting, never even realized that a dress and pearls were de rigueur. I always knew I’d go to college even though no one in my family ever had. My best friends in high school were two guys, and we did all sorts of neat things and pushed the boundaries as far as we dared. My friends and I roamed Cambridge, Harvard Square, when it was the neatest place. We were comfortable just about anywhere. Once we celebrated Mardi Tuesday with a picnic at the library where we sat hidden between the stacks on the third floor. We thought of ourselves as rebels. We saw foreign movies with subtitles and felt worldly. We were daredevils sledding with our toboggan on hills everyone avoided. The bumps sent us airborne.
I learned long ago that life is an adventure to be savored, and in all these years, I have seldom been disappointed.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: adventure, Cambridge, Harvard Square, life, pearls, Perry Mason, rain, Spider, spiders, Syfy
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September 22, 2012 at 10:12 am
Wow, deadly bugs and big dreams in one post. Great!
Cambridge Harvard Square:
When was it? Still the times of the famous folk revival?
Speaking of dreams, Joan Baez was my idol as a teenager: “Sing and save the world” 😉
I’m still singing (we have a concert today), but the world…
… is taken over by alien insects. Something must have gone horribly wrong.
September 22, 2012 at 10:52 am
Birgit,
Glad you like the bugs-right now they’re killer wasps who love pesticide.
Harvard Square was around 1962, 3 and 4. None of the stores were generic, the sort found everywhere. We went to the Orson Welles movie theater and ate at the Rathskeller and just wandered.
I have been a Joan fan forever!
September 22, 2012 at 11:50 am
I would have loved to be there at that time.
(Too young back then, but I’m still waiting for a time machine.)
The book by Eric von Schmidt & Jim Rooney “Baby let me follow you down. The illustrated story of the Cambridge folk years” was my folk music bible. I’ve read it several times. I should read it again.
September 22, 2012 at 10:21 am
Oh Kat I think you just wrote your own obituary, I teared up just reading the pride and joy in it. But not in a sad way at all.Strange I just wrote something the other day about my younger self, I think I’d better get to living a bit more, I know she would be very disappointed in me! Isn’t it amazing that all we really have are memories and hope. Good thing we don’t know the ending, I have no desire to read the story if I know the ending!
September 22, 2012 at 10:53 am
splendid,
That was certainly not in my head when I wrote today. I just got to thinking about getting older. I’m guessing that was because we celebrated a friend’s birthday yesterday.
I don’t want to know the ending either. I figure I’ll just live every day the best ways I can!
September 22, 2012 at 11:33 am
I would love to have that Syfy channel 🙂 The one with the insects from outer space, is that the one with Daryl Hannah? She is some kind of praying mantis queen? It is delightfully bad 🙂 I’ve always wondered why she could speak while having her human “costume” but suddenly lost that ability in the end when she took it off 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think I would like the older me since I finally did move out to the countryside even though I never became a veterinarian. But I still have some things to do before I can leave, like going up the Mississippi in a steam boat 🙂
Much the same weather here today, I even took a 1,5 hour nap. Now I have a fire burning in the stove ( we barely reach 50F before it sank again) and soon I’ll watch a dvd or two.
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 22, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Christer,
I know you would love this channel. It has the best cheesy movies, especially on Saturdays. No, it is not that one, but, of course, I have seen Daryl as the giant bug. In this one the alien bugs keep humans in cocoons they wrap around the bodies to save them for eating.
I’m with you in wanting that steamboat. I priced them way back, and they are expensive but I’d do it anyway.
I just woke up from my nap. After getting up at 5, a nap is a necessity by noon.
September 22, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Hey Kat!
Let me be the absolute LAST person to welcome you home…. 🙂
I think it is nearly impossible to do all the things you want in an average lifespan, but it’s worth the try. Some things I have accomplished – – like traveling – – but I look at things as stuff that’s got to be checked off the Bucket List.
One of the things I want to do is climb the Sydney Bridge in Austrailia. That is not a misprint. Every time I see it I think it is doable. Why not? I can do anything as long as I hold on to a railing.
The younger me was too afraid to try. The older me has no fear. Go figure. Must be my age.
I am bummed today because Springsteen has a concert at Metlife Stadium and I couldn’t swing the tickets. But Steve Forbert is doing a local appearance tomorrow to publicize his new CD and I think I will do that instead.. See? Sometimes ya gotta go with the flow…
Coleen
September 22, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Thanks, Coleen
I think I have done far more than I ever expected, especially the traveling. I would never imagine that I’d live in Africa, really live there for 2 years.
I figure most things are doable-they just take imagination and planning.
I was a fearless kid, and that has made me a fearless adult.
I learned to go with the flow-it makes life easier and even more fun sometimes!
September 22, 2012 at 6:24 pm
The greatest thing in life is to have done the things that you dreamed of when you were young. Not many of us have fulfilled those dreams completely but may have modified them to fit situations that arose in life. In the end it’s just six feet of earth and 39 cents worth of cheap flowers. I believe that the journey is the reward.
September 22, 2012 at 6:37 pm
Bob,
I love it: the journey is most definitely the reward.
When I was in the sixth grade, I vowed I would travel and see the world. I don’t know where that dream came from as no one I knew had gone anywhere, except my Dad and it took a war, but travel I did.
Other dreams came true, some, as you’ve said, modified just a bit but no less satisfying.