shoulda, woulda, coulda…

So I asked Charlie Rook what he was getting for my birthday and he said, "Nothing." I said, "Why nothing?" He said, "you didn't use what I got you last year."

I forgot what it was so when I asked him to remind me he said, "A cemetery plot!" (Barumpa!)

I thought about that and said, "I don't have time to use it just yet because I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up."

Then, while he was still in a thoughtful mood, I said, "What do you think about my using a few years to go to college. I always wanted to graduate with a degree in 'something'." Sweet Charlie Rook replied softly: "I think you should do it. It would be better use of your time than trying to get your book published."

Wow! Talk about getting into my brain with a stick of dynamite!

That was yesterday. Today I just finished reading the Sunday Kitsap Sun and was struck by this wonderful article by Angela Dice about graduating seniors recalling what they said when they were in third grade and the teacher asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. Now full of 12 years of cramming knowledge enough to face the future with some degree of wisdom, did they still have the same hopes and dreams?

So I'm shucking and jiving around my living room to the 1969 YouTube video of Les McCann and Eddie Harris at the Montreux Jazz festival and really getting it on with all the hippie fervor I could muster on a Sunday morning and wondering if I can. ('I think I can, I think I can, I think I can', goes the refrain).

But realistically, do I really think I can?

More later.