MOJAVE MULESKINNERS

Soon we'll celebrate Christmas of 1999, then raise a glass to the new century. It's going to be difficult to speak the new years as they roll by. Two-thousand, two-thousand-one, etc. I was born in, and have always related to the years as nineteen-and-something. I don't think I'm going to ever get used to that.

 

But there's an awful lot that I'm not getting used to these days. At first I thought it was just me. Just a part of the aging process. You see, contrary to popular belief, age does not necessarily bring wisdom. I, for one, wish it did. But instead of becoming wiser, I have come to question not only my daily decisions, but some that I've made in the past. Clearly, this must be part of the aging mechanism?

 

I am now old enough to have lived a great deal of our history. Indeed, witnessed a significant percentage of it. And I can tell you this: I don't recall it happening the way some journalists have written it. Moreover, we live in bigger houses and have smaller families; more conveniences but less time; are better educated but show less common sense; more knowledge but less judgement; more experts but more problems; more hospitals but more sick people. We smoke too much, drink too much, spend too much and laugh too little. We've added years to our life but not life to our years. We drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom. We've multiplied our possessions yet reduced our values. And when was the last time you sat and talked with your wife, son, daughter, dad, mom, or a friend for more than fifteen minutes?

 

The cottonpickers used to sing an old song: "Good times are comin', they're comin' I know....." but where are those cottonpickers? Where are the good times? Today we have two incomes and more divorce, fancier houses but more broken homes. We have quick vacations, disposable diapers, throw-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.

 

Maybe the advent of this new millennium we're about to experience will bring about some new ideas? But since I'm getting on in years, I think I'll just sit back and let the young folk fix it. After all ~ me and my contemporaries sure made a mess out of that last century, didn't we.

 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Century

 

 

~ Weakeyes CodyDecember 1999