I know many of us are suffering and experiencing inarticulated mental illness syndromes due to all this excessive quarentining; and we are supposed to fall in with the celebrities and advertisers by saying buzzwords like “we are all in this together,” but for one evening at least, I could only relate to fame and fortune and true love.
In fact my life was looking pretty rosy and full of endless possibilities, alive in a world blissfully unaware of any form of social distancing.
Everything was right.
But just when my new life seemed to be going oh so good in my little hometown and I’ve found the cutest person of my dreams. Guess what happened?
The plot thickened yet again and suddenly I was offered a job as a partner at a law firm in New York City!
Turns out its very, very prestigious and I’ve been preparing for this my whole life!
My loyal sidekick best friend keeps asking me, ‘Why aren’t you more excited?” ‘This is what you always wanted.” (heads up: my loyal sidekick is devoted to all things me and never has time for a life!)
Should I stay or should I go?
But lately I feel like I’ve changed. I went back to the old family farm and I have been thinking of how to save it.
Wall Street seems too busy and hollow. I love the bakery and the diner in the little town and I love attending the town’s quaint gingerbread house and snowman judging contests.
And I reconnected with my old flame from high school. We parted in a very unsatisfying, tormented way, and I never got to say goodbye.
And, although I have a girlfriend and my high school flame sports a boyfriend, both arrangements are merely perfunctory and easily undone–formed as they were when our priorities were askew. So when the time is right, just like clockwork at the 5 minute mark, they will both bow away gracefully and give us their best blessings as we return to being just friends (This occurrence of course, is bound to lead to misunderstanding, as my true love watches from the wings and temporarily stomps off for the airport, thinking that I said “yes” to the ring proposal).
So now I am thinking I can turn the family farm into a B@B. My and my old flame (who still looks the same as when she was 18 and can fit into the same jeans) can finally commit to each other and she can co-manage it and also play in the BAND with me every Saturday in the old barn that we will turn into a concert hall.
Truly it’s a magical, throwback town full of young people with great dimples, and older folks with great older person dimples.
And we will pay off my folks loan with the bank. And our neighbors will raise money for us. And I can work as a teacher AND serve as the EDITOR at the local town newspaper that would just die to have someone of my big city credentials suddenly agreeing to lower their standards and work there.
And I could give back to the community and agree to teach music to the local school kids in my spare time.
In short I will follow my heart instead of my head! And New York City will just have to wait….. unless maybe I decide someday to practice LAW part time when I occasionally need to raise more money for the family farm.
Perhaps life doesn’t follow a smoothly laid out plan and isn’t so meticulous and methodical.
Perhaps…… ”
Oops. I just woke up and realized I had fallen asleep on the sofa while a Hallmark Romance movie was playing in the background. As my brain restores its equilibrium I awake to my old propositions. No family farms. No law practices. No city versus country tug. No loyal sidekicks who live to help me thrive. And no marketable skills for uprooting myself anytime I want!
But at least I still have Hallmark reruns.
John Watts 