CHOOSING MY NAME

CHOOSING MY NAME

It all comes down to how I answer one question.

Who do I want to be when I grow up?

Too many choices,

I can’t decide –

Narrow the options, please.

Is it the lure of material things?

Am I as good as they are?

Will I have to show them?

Hello,

My name is Richard.

My grandfather’s father was Richard.

My father’s father had a brother named Richard.

My father and mother had had a daughter and three boys

And one more named Richard.

Uncle Ben seemed better than Uncle Richard when I was fifteen years old.

VOCATION

Take yourself seriously.

Work as if no one else can do your work.

Infuse your work with an intensity that only you can know the reason for.

Obscurity and gravitas will make you a poet extraordinaire in the eyes of some

And you will die just as the rest of us, little understood and mostly forgotten.

That’s why you had better enjoy what you are doing

while you are doing it.

PILGRIMAGE

A pilgrim is a person who is on a pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred shrine,

an important place, an important memory,

an important truth…

I am one traveler

searching for

a history,

a time,

a story,

a place,

my name.

My Field of Expertise?… I have no field of expertise…All that I have known is me…

How well can one know God?

Looking for Affirmation… Tell me that I am good. I won’t believe it but tell me anyway.

Familial illusion … tightly knit back coverers

Community of individuals … They have backs too.

And then a sudden revelation:

All of those whom I have idolized are as ordinary as I am.

I am somebody,

ORDINARY

and

PLAIN

No Regrets

I had no regrets as we said goodbye.

As we parted, I knew that I had said the words

that needed saying.

 I knew that I had loved with the love that needed loving.

The inevitable parting knew no regrets.