To Have or To Be
Time is running down, clocks and clown paint drips. I resolve to listen to more Hip.
I recently got an email from “Sony”. It said “Why not check out your photos?” Now, I’ve always kept my photos on Google and so I was puzzled and at the same time curious what these photos were. So I clicked the link.
And low and behold, it took me to “Shutterfly” and I remembered I used to use it over 25 years ago. Yeah, my first “digital” camera. A huge clunky Kodak with a battery life of about 2 minutes. But it would and did, upload photos to the cloud where I could then send them as email attachments.
These photos from so long ago just blew my mind. I never really took many photos my whole life. Most of my life was pre-internet, pre “photo everything. Besides, I was lazy, counted on others to do the work. But here were some. And it made me think of all the time that has passed and the things I haven’t done. And I immediately reflected, I don’t want to do any MORE. No. What I want to do is “be” more. Fromme’s dictum sitting there for me to rise to the challenge of …”to have or to be”.
So I say this for your own benefit. Life is not about “having or doing”. I’ve known such fine people who hardly ever moved from their tiny house nor had never even been up an elevator. No - the quality of a man is in his self, his character, his inner life - not all the awards, going ons, accomplishments, medals, bucket lists done.
The hourglass is there before us all, here grains they there fall. Let’s rise up and BE.
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
— Matthew 16:26
I RESOLVE
I resolve
to wear more purple
and not to pull up my socks
should they fall
to eat more strawberries
in the sun, one after one.
I resolve
to look more closely,
at the smaller things
buttons, spiders, dandelion dust, wedding rings
to sit more on swings.
I resolve
to stay longer in bed awake
and think and dream
about a boat I want but
will never make.
I resolve
to kiss my gal a little longer
to make love stronger
more often pull her in
to always, in all things, in spirit
begin, being …..
I resolve
to play with children,
like one of them
and collect fire trucks
and climb trees
and get my knees green again.
I resolve
to tell my mother I love her
a thousand times, all at once
and tell her she did well
thought all can so very well tell.
I resolve
to think of the good every day
and in suffering
know what I may
not be otherwise
each of us a crooked surprise.
I resolve
to look in that little fishes eye
the next time she’s hooked
to ask for more soup
and look where others haven’t looked.
I resolve
to look up more skirts
to sword fight with willow sticks
to spread my peanut butter just a little more thick
to burn, forget, the length of my wet wick.
I resolve
to lick my dog back
and to take a crack
at what I’ve never dreamed
to believe and pass by
all things that I’ve only seemed.
I resolve
to have my cake and eat it too
but if others need
bread ‘ll have to do
to do what needs be done
even if they don’t see the good.
I resolve
to buy myself more flowers
and to pick more wild ones
- the scraggly beauty of my love’s
luscious hair
to sit by streams
waiting for the gull on the rock
fishing
to be there.
I resolve
to listen to more of life’s honest
on and off, up and down
to lose myself in rhythm
and in that strange way
be found.
I resolve
to suck longer on fresh peaches
to not see the ugliness in leeches
to go wherever my will reaches
and getting there
eat my bread in joy,
drink my wine in peace
for this day will never
come again
just like this new year
will never ask when.