The Emerald Rose

         I guess I’m officially becoming an “old fart” of the first magnitude. One of the really nice things about life, and anyone’s life in particular, is simply that we could compartmentalize. By that I mean we could have “community friends”, “close friends” “neighbors”, “acquaintances”, “a public life”, “a private life”, hell even a “secret life” or a “forbidden life” if we wanted to have them. Each fit very carefully into a “compartment” from which WE would select that which it would be today, this week, the next three hours, etc.,…but it’s all gone now, or at least fast on it’s way to being gone.

       Like today for example. I have at least five “lives” or “personna’s” to be.

       First the 65 year old husband of 44 years, with no real “pension”, no fat stock portfolio, or IRA, or the like. Just a 65 year old who has to work til I die, that has to take care of my wife and I as best I can. (I’m not going into the reasons or the “but if’s”, that’s not the purpose of this article) I just have to get up, put one foot in front of the other and as they say, “keep on keepin’ on” until day is done and it’s time for bed. That’s compartment #1. (Another reason seniors all seem to go to bed by nine p.m. me thinks.)

         Then as I sit writing this I am the Sartre, the Camus, the Hemingway, and the Cervantes, all rolled into one, pouring out an “inner me”, a private me, a me who would love to just be able to write commentaries all day long,( compartment #2)….and even get paid for it, (or would that be another life? If you get paid then is it not a “job” versus a “joy”?) The freedom to express that inner being, those inner thoughts, the “essense of yourself”,(such as it is) that ten or fifteen years ago would have been virtually impossible because the only way top do it was to write in a journal, a loner sitting under a tree in the park, or huddled in your bed with a forty watt bulb glaring over your shoulder. But today it’s a “blog”, and today it is fashionable, and in fact it has “come out of the closet” the selfish closet, because once I hit “post” it , whatever it is, good, bad, happy, sad, well written, or just plain “crap”, it is forever out there in the ether layer for everyone who cares to see, no cloak, no secret nom de plume, it’s just me talking to you.

          In about two hours I have to go get into my “Mr. Businessman” personna (compartment #3) and go meet a “search committee” for a big project I am in line to “manage”. That means charm, smile, grin ‘n grip, be tactful, think before speaking, oh yeah and don’t ask for a beer if they ask if I’d like anything to drink. All that being equal maybe I will have a new account at the end of the day. (Not literally as these things take several months, maybe a second round of meetings, contract negociations, etc. etc.)

         Then on to compartment #4, the “Private me”, where I get home, change into my gym gear and head for the gym. Get on the treadmill (ironic huh? talk about different lives and you still wind up on one treadmill or another every day, day after day after day!)  Take out my e-reader (now that’s a great invention, kind of like owning your own bookstore with every title in the world at your fingertips whenever you want it) crank the treadmill up to 3.5 m.p.h., trigger my fancy little heart moniter/trainer thingy, and zone out for about two hours and at least five miles. (Gotta start doing something for the upper body, I’m Superman from the waist down, and Mr. Limpet from the waist up to the neck. Above the neck,….well an Einstein among commoners, a Rousseau among kindergarteners, or if you like living proof that God invented Stout to keep us of Irish  heritage from conquering the world,…or something like that.

        Shift again, from #4 to compartment #5, the “common man” with a Pint, a Pub, and a Pal. for a couple hours of conversation, thought and controversy. Everything from friend Carl’s hedge play on Bond’s in todays markets, to Jody’s new Espana World Cup Champions pride versus Martin’s Man U and my humble observations on a moving Triangle defense much like Chelsea is using as the “new” defense of world football, then maybe Miss Sandy’s finally getting rid of all her company and ready to just relax for a week or two til the next relatives blow in for “vacation”. (If you live in a “vacation” area the whole world is your friend and comes to visit at the drop of a pin, but try and convince them you are a working stiff and can’;t take fourdays a week off to party and spend time on the beach with them just because they are here for their eighty hour “work release” benefit called a paid vacation. If I don’t work my bills don;’t get paid,….get it?)

           Then on to compartment #6, traditional old fart, come home shower, shave, grab a glass of dry white like a Pinot Grigio or a Sauvignon Blanc, flip on the TV, see if anything is on for the evening, have dinner with the wife, kick the recliner back and zone out into the mindless area referred to by a former Chairman of the Federal Communications commission , Mr Minnow, as “a vast wasteland”,….until bed time,….9 p.m. remember?

        So much for compartments, then along comes Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, and all the rest of those invasive little “apps”. I’m begining to think the only place facebook free in the world is inside a coffin, securely planted six feet below the earth and out of any WiFi “Hotspot”.

          BTW, Just learned that one, By The Way, is there a definative book or something with all those texty type abbreviations in it so I don’t feel like an idiot when someone” intrudes” my spce with a concern about some kind of a BFF and an OMG, and a LOL and ROF?

         Out of repect for the new generation, here isa an advance look at tomorrows blog: ” BYR  LCT at MMT or RFU. Let me know what U think, after all  it is All about you ,….right?

🙂

-30-