Mondays are hard, with all these losses piled up against all these lingering expectations, and the sleep still in the eyes. Something is missing. Check the listings.
Why does it matter to name it? Will that bring it back? All you can do with a name is add it to a list.
That is something. Look here. Someone has arrived at their location in Lakeside with their boat still attached to the trailer, only to discover that somewhere along the way, the sail has flown out.
Meanwhile, just across town, a shepherd has fled the yard on the same day that Dozer, a best friend without a collar or a chip was taken from the motel parking lot. This near midnight, Friday night.
There are at least three new orange tabbies out there today. Plus, two huskies and a fifteen-year-old pug.
No, that’s not it. Something else. Look somewhere else.
Shall I tell you about the massacre of children, the holy war, the thousands dead or homeless? Or would you like to hear about what’s happening with the weather? The fires have––
Stop, no. I can’t.
On this day in 1960, a man dropped from a balloon over New Mexico, and during his fall achieved the highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
What sort of challenge is this? Who falls fastest? People will make anything into a contest.
What hurts the most, the ones you can list or the thousands you can’t name?
Let’s take a break from this line of thought. Tell me about a birth.
On this day in 1920, Charles Bukowski was born. Check this out. He wrote, “We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.”
The hope is exquisite here. As if to indicate that the act of cherishing was an antidote to loss.
It is, in a way. Because at least you are holding it well. At least there is something there, until the moment when the floor gives out, or the hurricane strikes, or the top blows off the mountain that gave us shade in the late afternoon, raining ash on our city of light.
Here’s something else. I think you may like this one, another thing Bukowski said.
All the impossible losses, accumulating over all our cities of light, all these missing best friends and the sails gone to our boats, what is a body to do?
No, listen. I think you will like this.
What?
He said this, too. “Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning, and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside, remembering all the times you felt that way.”
Do we have coffee?
It’s brewing. It’s almost done. Just wait.
***
More in this series:
- Notes for the Missing
- News of the World
- News From the Health Well
- Lost and Found
- I’ll Meet you at the Lost and Found
- Misplaced News
- Seeking Anon
4 thoughts on “Counting Losses”