WONDER WHY NO ONE ASKS, “WHERE ARE THEY NOW?”

Who doesn’t wonder about people from different parts of life and wonder why they left, or why you left?

Something happened. If it wasn’t something that required therapy or the law, an occasional ‘wonder why’ happens. And it’s okay.

Yeah, I feel better, too.

If no one wonders about you and where you are, it’s because they see you every day. It’s a simple mental tool to fend off the void.

But, when roles change and we wonder why things are as they are, why the phrase ‘it is what it is’ sounds so much like ‘fuck you and die,’ then it’s time to break out the emotional tools.

For most of us, the painful part of wondering about others is the disconnect. The distances feel even wider during the pandemic. So, instead of the usual despair and dread, why not mine beautiful memories.

Okay, boomer?

High School Year Book

Thumb over to the modern dance class picture. Is it a bunch of people in black leotards? What happened to the troupe after graduation?

The visual I see is community theater CATS.

Chess Club Picture:

They all became lawyers, the sort who never ask a question they don’t know the answer to, the sort who plan five moves ahead with fives moves off every variable.

Or they became the neighbor who had a one-up for every occasion.

Glee Club Picture:

See CATS with more enthusiasm. Regional theater CATS.

Lettermen’s Club Picture:

These high school students all became diplomats. They all received varsity letters.

Everyone agreed that a wrestling letter carried the same weight as a tennis letter.

Football Team Picture:

By the 60th reunion one of them will claim they had been a Super Bowl champion.

Another will claim the Immaculate Reception.

One of them will show a ginned up Wheaties box with their picture on the front.

This is my plan.

Wonder Why A Better Plan Won’t Work?

The best plan every time is living an honest life, an honorable life. Live like the people around you matter. All of them.

Some claims they are socially liberal but fiscally conservative? That doesn’t mean they drank the kool-aide. It does mean they keep on eye on their money, and where it goes.

Why not appeal to your better angels. Start by voting for a better outcome in 2020. Vote for schools, libraries, police; vote for your favorites, but see the ballot as a personality test.

You don’t have kids in school so you vote against school bonds? Maybe education was a waste of your time.

A library is no different than a bookstore, so you vote down library funding? Maybe learning to read was a waste of your time.

If you vote against measures that give assistance to the less fortunate, and vote against an improved police force, and complain about taxes every chance you get?

Tell me again about your theater career, sports career, legal career; go ahead and leave out the academic career because you didn’t have one.

Just like the other ‘careers.’