"We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.
That's fine with us. Every morning
we glow and in the evening we glow again.
That's fine with us. Every morning
we glow and in the evening we glow again.
They say there's no future for us. They're right.
Which is fine with us."
Rumi "Who Says Words With My Mouth?"
My friend Kristin's comment reminded that I needed to pull out my Rumi. And when I did, look what I found. With a glass of red wine in hand, I smiled as I read this poem. How wonderful that we, at least, have cups even if we don't have a barrel, only a really big bottle. But what made me smile the most were the last two lines. Sometimes both Horacio and I worry that we're not doing what we should be doing. We should own a house, have nicer cars, staple careers, etc. And I know that many people look at our lives and do think that we are failures, or at least see us as a bit odd maybe even irresponsible. So when I read that line, it makes me pause a moment to look over our life. I read snuggled against Horacio, with Camille on the couch besides him, Piper snoozing on the carpet, Umberto in his room watching "Garfield." We were sipping red wine, reading bits of poetry to each other. It was one of those beautiful, quiet nights that just make me feel at peace. And I thought "We are fine. We are happy." On nights like these, it is fine that we have no future. The present is too beautiful to wish away.
6 comments:
the future is always the postponement of a lot of things, feelings, thoughts... love is always in the present.
Matt and I think about this a lot too: a philosopher and a writer?? That doesn't necessarily bode well for owing a house, nice cars, etc. I know that some of our family and friends question the choices we've made, and sometimes even we do.
But then I remember that even though we live in a tiny apartment and we're not fabulously wealthy or very responsible, we're happy. I kind of feel as though, in Margaret Cho's words (though she was talking about something else) we took ourselves out of the game of "normal life" and we're a lot happier for it.
I really enjoyed this post and your thoughts!
I hear you on stepping out of normal. Most of the time we're very happy that we did this. I think for me it's hanging with moms who just have so much more that we do, and whom I know disapprove a bit of our life. But the kids seems happy, fairly well-adjusted (if a bit strange. Thanks for adding, it's always nice to feel affirmed by intelligent, cool people. In many ways that's what we lack here. Even the cool people we know seem a bit caught up in owing a house, driving a big car, etc.
I know it's hard to ignore the judgement of those others, but I think your life is fabulous. Life is nothing about "things"; it's all about people and relationships. You are rich, Ginger, absolutely rolling in wealth.
Amen sister Rosslyn. Gosh these posts are making me miss Jessica and you. Of course I havn't seen Jessica in a much longer time:(
It is nice to talk with somebody who feels the same way and is going through something similar! Although we don't have children yet, we want to--and are always hearing from people who advise us to wait until we are "settled" and "ready" and all that. I'm not sure we'll ever be that much more settled than we are now (though maybe more ready). You guys seem to be doing a fabulous job of being a happy, cool, smart family!
Maybe sometime in the not-too-far future we could all visit :)
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