I Won't Kick Your Chair

I remember some friends telling me about seeing Prince one night during his Sign O' the Times tour- the crowd was jumping, the music was almighty but one man continued to sit. One of my friends said that she kept kicking his chair until he got up. This is how I feel about the marketing around Valentines Day. Stop kicking my chair! Don't worry, I'm already standing. I'm actually pretty happy with some covert sweets from New Orleans, especially since I'll probably eat 75% of 'em.

My attention turns to people i don't really know well but have known of, for many years. We've grown older together; interacted, friendly acquaintances. People that were my customers, or folks in the neighborhood-still. Friends perhaps, friendly at least. In my day you could get away with anything short of murder in your 20's- it may not be this way now. At some point or another we were all drunks, or artists or artistic drunks. In our 30's this would begin to be more suspect, definitely a problem if it lasted into our 40's...

Yet others were on a bright path; full of life and desire. Brilliant in their way, gallant, glamorous, a magnetic force. It was a choice, it was an unfortunate turn of events, it was life as it happens leaving them now alone. I see some in seemingly run down apartment buildings still gallant souls, and warm hearts. They may have wanted and chosen this path and might be the happier for it and if so, then may it continue. I know that with some fate played a cruel hand and they are alone, without the means to live in comfort and the freedom to be mobile. Their prospects seem dim, and perhaps their time has passed.

My fortune is immense; to have a partner and children who affirm and give meaning to life. In a practical sense, a two person income allows the potential of mobility, and an ability to breathe in a big city. To those individuals that survive on their means alone, it must be difficult, nearly impossible to plan ahead. The path life takes can be irreverent, choices and fortune stubborn, contrary. On Valentine's Day, I am grateful for my fortune, my luck. For those that have known otherwise, i hope for better days.