Not Exactly Shakespeare's Ages of Man Revisited

 

Life presents us with obstacles,

matched to our age and situation.

---No!

Better said:

Being alive is nothing but a Pain-In-The-Ass!

--A NON-STOP pain-in-the-ass!

My mother cares for my father.

A so-called “care provider“ (nice lady)

cares for my mother,

and helps my father,

approximately five times a week.

 

Not that it's enough,

but it is something good,

five times a week.

And it is expensive!

And the care provider is,

despite that fact,

under-paid.......

Life is a non-stop obstacle:

In the plane to and from my parents' home,

I faced a problem suited to my age:

conversation with a similarly aged stranger!

Conversation with a stranger:

That's something like sitting in a taxi,

and being jostled about,

wondering if we'll make it around the corner,

or if we'll run the light,

or crash,

and, all the while listening to the driver complain,

about the Laziness of Europeans.

Because that's what both of my American fellow passengers

told me at the outset,

--straight out.

The French especially commit the sin

of wanting their weekends free.

Unlike the Good Germans,

who,

like us,

check their email on the weekends.

 

I was too startled and naive to protest at the time,

But later I post-hearsed the proper response:

“You fool! The weekend is or should be Sacred!

People died so that you could have a weekend.”

But I am always slow,

and especially so,

when sitting uncomfortably,

in a Lufthansa jet,

where I feel guilty about not having good German.