VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 16:27:03 04/07/03 Mon
Author: Rodney Evan Bohen
Subject: The Heavy Red Wagon


Letters to Carla 7/15/2001

The Heavy Red Wagon

My Dearest Carla,

I awaken this morning with an added measure of sleep that seems to agree with me! Yes, I am adorned this day with a measure of rest I recall not experiencing for some time now! So after fifty years of hearing varied principals such as my Mother harp about the necessity of sleep, perhaps I get the picture and yes finally capture the wisdom of such admonishing indeed! I would not say this added portion of sleep has allowed me to cross over into the realm of giddy! But yes I feel quite well this day! Thank you for asking, and you my dear? Does the morning find you dressed up in a new snappy outfit of personal strength in spirit and body, surpassing that of the day left behind? I hope so indeed!

I appreciate your sharing concerning your pond companion, or bowl buddy, whichever is most suitable, you seem quite captivated with the little chap indeed, I am intrigued as well concerning the layout and design of his bowl; however, and await further details and dimensions at your leisure, I find the pirate songs you sing to him quite charming as well as heart warming indeed! However I must admit in all candor that I have never met one person who knew one pirate song ever! Let alone more than one! This frightens me a bit, and causes me to feel possibly that you linger on the fringe! However, to each his own!

Carla, you seem to be shedding the badness in remarkable form! It causes and ushers in some thoughts to mind, would not the mark of excellence that separates some people from others indeed be this ambiguous term referred to as resilience? I have rather often been amazed in watching young children fall hard as they often do! They seem to have limbs made of rubber at that young age, allowing them to withstand unusual punishment do to sudden impact, attributed to their as well propensity towards lack of coordination at that young age! However as we grow older we seem to loose that rubbery type bone structure, rendering us more susceptible to breakage in these areas! Yes, life is a mystery from beginning to end!

However to not digress any further, yes it seems to me that a mark of excellence indeed rests upon the man who can recuperate from badness! Time frame put aside! Yes, to recuperate and kick back quickly would make him indeed a hero to those of us who kick back in slower fashion, but yet to kick back at all, renders us heroes in my eyes period! Is my admiration misplaced indeed I ask you? I think not! For I have stumbled across many in my life that have never been able to reassemble themselves from such intrusive invasions of badness indeed! So my dear, you are a hero! As well as I!

Now my dear, there are truly those among us who judge more harshly! Given the fact that they seemingly have never stumbled at all in life! I applaud their steady gate, as well as their luck of the draw, but theses are the same breed that when they encountered their first enemy, as in the great stock market collapse, merely hurled themselves out of third story windows! So indeed there is perhaps something to be said for the individual who has mastered falling, being that they have accumulated insight and experience in this arena and department of human folly and emotions! I feel as well my dear that they who stumble often, are the sensitive and pondering among us! Yes, special folk indeed who carry brilliance and depth of character, as well as creative obsession in their pockets as does a seven year old boy does carry all his valuables about in his pockets, all spilling over and overflowing indeed to his inability to distinguish and
prioritize according to value! See Carla, a young boy at seven, must carry his whole world and all of his earthy belongings with him wherever he travels! For he never knows when he shall indeed have need of theses priceless possessions!


That's precisely why wagons were made! To allow the young lad to do just that! That why we see this picture often in life, a seven year old boy walking down the street with his pockets bulging, from sling shots, army men! And in the wagon, his dog, and larger contents of value, such as baseball bat, glove, skates, etc.! He just merely doesn't know when he shall be called upon to produce these items! So he finds himself prepared always! However the only drawback that we often find lugging and hauling this wagon of heart into adulthood is this, the burden and weight of it all can slow us down, and at times cause us to literally crumble under the weight of it all as well as the responsibility it all represents and demands! For when this young man of seven does indeed find a playmate to engage, he is derailed and diverted attention wise, due to the attention that all his possessions require! So as he grows older he hopefully realizes that he simply can't haul all this stuff around any longer! For it truly intrudes on his ability to be foot loose and fancy-free!


Now Carla I find not this simple analogy deep enough or wise enough that all men of modern science shall ooh and awe me! However, I do find it somewhat indicative of the luggage we carry about in our lifetime that burden us indeed beyond description! I think as well it paints a tale of what can happen to us often in adulthood when our possessions of charm become our jail keepers! I once at twenty-four or so had a girlfriend kind enough to buy me a TR6! A Triumph! A sports car! A marvelous car indeed it was! But the responsibility it ushered into my life was mind boggling indeed! I had to always park it in front of the door at my favorite tavern when drinking my fill, in order to make sure none scratched it, I always had to have it within sight as to insure its safety! No, Carla, it was no fun at all! For it meant way too much to me! Therefore the beauty and brilliance that it could have offered was wasted on me completely! Due to my fear that it was going to be taken away! Hell! If you can't afford to lose it gracefully! Then you can't afford to have it! Possessions of heart and mind that burden us to the point of the ushering in of anxiety are not necessarily worth having! If it brings more grief than joy! Hell, kick it to the curb!


Money and wealth often have this affect on people Carla, rather than relaxing as a result of its presence, they instead become compulsive in how to maintain it and keep it safe! Yes, they squander the peace and freedom it could represent, by allowing it to literally take them prisoner! I once saw ten multi millionaires interviewed I shall never forget it! All but one upon realizing their first million became complete workaholics giving fifteen hours a day and more to guarding their fortune as well as enhancing it! While one simple and bright in mind merely laughed and said he had done nothing but fish since he realized his first million! Alas, the difference in men's hearts! Yes, indeed, the compulsive youngster afraid of losing all his possessions would one day have a caravan of little red wagons he would end up pulling around! Whereas the young man truly searching for freedom and richness in life would merely prioritize, and pick up his little dog and disappear into the sunset leaving the rest behind! Knowing that he shall never get anywhere attempting to pull such a load! So burdensome indeed!


Possessions can alter a man's heart indeed! Usually for the worst! At least this has been my simple observation, for indeed the more a man has! The more he must labor to keep it! Guard it! And as well maintain it! So perhaps the man we see along the road hitchhiking, with his knapsack and dog smiling by his side, truly has the right idea! Insofar as the true richness life has to offer!

Yours in heart always,

Rodney
www.rodneybohen.com

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.