Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you...

A quote from Annie Dillard.

So, the other day my mother was talking to me about something my grandmother recently said. The basic idea behind what she was saying is that she has come to an age where if she doesn't like something, she's not going to do it. If she doesn't want something, she is going to get rid of it. If something is complicated or not worth her time, it's over. Okay, so my thoughts on this are: If we have to come to a certain age to become this way, doesn't this mean we have spent like, I don't know, sixty years of our lives doing things we never wanted to do in the first place, having things in our lives that we don't even want, and working our way through complicated issues that end up not being worth it? Why do we do this to ourselves? Fr. Alfred D'Souza says:

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

Forget that. I don't want to wait for my life to begin after I make it through finals or after I get a real job or after I get married, etc. This is real life. You only live once. You are making the bed you have to lie in...etcetera, etcetera. I always think about people I have talked to who are working, in relationships (I am not downplaying relationships, I am just saying the people who have relayed these stories to me are in relationships), following the same routine, the same rigmarole everyday, and there comes a point when they wake up, look in the mirror and say, "Is this it? Is this life?" I am going to work my hardest to never come to that realization. Life should be exciting, adventurous! My great-grandfather once said, "If you are not growing and learning everyday, you might as well be dead." I concur. Carpe diem my friends. Why does it take the process of aging to come to the point where we say, "Hey, I am going to live every day the way I want to live it. I am not going to do anything that I don't really want to do." Let's say it now, today. I mean, barring school, I am going to try my best to live my life this way. I have a feeling it lessens regrets, and you have a hell of a lot more fun.

Warning by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.