Rather, I went downtown to the apartment with the balcony. The trouble began, though, before I left street level. Oh, it looked exciting there, all the girls in tight, short, glittery dresses, all of them as perfectly capable of hosting their own television reality show like "The Girls Next Door" or "The Kardashians." They bubbled over and bent into poses for invisible cameras, laughing in the high, uptalker voices they've all assumed now. The beating began.
It continued upstairs where I was reminded ruthlessly and relentlessly that I was not in the running for the handsomest man in the room any more. The beating continued.
I stayed too late, watched the ball drop in Times Square, watched the animated Dick Clark grin into the camera. The noise of party whistles filled the room while outside fireworks burst over the lake.
I woke alone in the dark to a rain storm and the cat's meow, got up, drank some water, gave her some food, and went back to bed.
I'd hoped for better. But here it is, the new decade. "Blue Moon."I should have listened to the lyrics.
I think I'll quit drinking.
Yay you got it -- a photo?
ReplyDeleteyay. I've been listening to your blue moon's all morning. thanks for that.
I don't know why Dick Clark does that to us.
ack.
you and your "young girls / old man laments"
such a poet-like thing you are.
When You are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
--W. B. Yeats
I heard the old, old men say,
ReplyDelete"Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away."
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say,
"All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters."
William Butler Yeats
a new year's thank you for your blog, photos, and narrative. i wish you the best.
ReplyDeleteyour words....aging in the USA....a youthcentric society that doesn't recognize the mind and the beauty of things that are outside the "market" of the body. reminds me of the airbrushed idealism of Playboy mag and Nazi propaganda posters.
The glorious chariots of the kings wear out;
ReplyDeletethe body also comes to old age;
but the virtue of good people never ages;
thus the good teach each other.
- From: "Old Age" by Buddha
I'm right there with you bud...great hopes for the evening dashed...and a disheartening conversation about agism and our 'youthcentric' society as bea put it, that has left me cold (and with a hangover to boot) Resolutions don't have to start until January 2nd right?
ReplyDeletebut the photo is beautiful...I wish I had been outside taking photos instead of where I was...
ReplyDeleteI put on a Bob Marley DVD concert and rung in the 2010 with coors light and the cat :)
ReplyDeleteAge, meh! your as old or young as you feel.
Feel young and have fun :)
D
oh, I also got a change to see the moon between clouds. Glad I did! Next Blue moon in like 2028 or something like that :)
ReplyDelete2010 here we are, what's your goal?
d
i saw the moon. big late afternoon orb .......... iridescent and ignored. a lovely moment.
ReplyDeleteclarification: "youthcentric" is about marketing the body, not about education, opportunities, jobs etc.
Thank you all. You cheer me up.
ReplyDeletewell, I must confess, I have not welcomed a new year in for every bit of twenty years, if not even more. I grew tired of the whole ball thing, the hugging and kissing as if something big happened. I always go to bed on new years eve by at least nine o'clock. I am a bore. but I start the new year off early and with something I consider a bang.
ReplyDelete