I remember it all started when I was very
small. They were all bigger than I was
and much older. They were called
adults. They would tell me what to do,
how to act, where to be and of course – what not to do. They would smile and laugh when they were
pleased and yell and hit when they were angry.
As I grew I watched. I paid attention - not just to the adults
around me but to all adults, even the ones on the television. I would see them do all kinds of things. Very strange things; most things I didn’t
understand. Many things were quite mean-spirited.
Eventually I started school. Those adults were called teachers, assistant
principals and principals. I watched
them as well. They would gather in
groups and laugh, smoke cigarettes and complain about management and paychecks.
When I entered the workforce I
discovered layer upon layer of adults called bosses. They too would smile when pleased and yell
when they were angry. Actually, they
weren’t all that different from the little kids I saw on the playground when I
was much younger, and they too were mean-spirited, just like the ones I saw on
the TV.
The strange thing was, even though I
too was now grown and as tall as they were, they were still telling me what to
do, where to be, how to act – and of course, what not to do.
Ever since I can remember I would
make mental notes of the rights and wrongs of the adults who were actually
good and of those who were a great deal like the evil and nasty ones I saw on
television. I saw their mistakes and
then their cover-ups. I saw them take
credit for things they didn’t do and point blame onto someone else for things
they did.
I have witnessed them start wars and
wave flags. I have seen the sad, vacant
stare of those left behind and I have seen
the Oak tree on the hill where they buried my brother.
I don’t need to travel there to read
his headstone; I already know what it says.
Wisdom doesn’t always come with
age.
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