I was watching an episode of the TV series Monk whose obsessive compulsive disorder is extraordinarily intriguing. In any case, one particular scene is why I'm writing all this which was in a way surreal and in a way out of place.
Monk was sitting on a bench in the park while a garbage collector was passing buy with a long stick that picks up garbage on the floor. So he picks one and moves on but Monk is bothered, he points to another and the garbage collector picks it up. He then points to another and the guy obediently picked it up.
Finally he points to something else on the floor and the garbage guy tells him, "But it's just a leaf," but Monk tells him, "Just thought while you're at it." So the guy picks the leaf and places it in the garbage.
He then looks to Monk and says, "Do you think you're better than me? Pointing at all the garbage from your bench? I used to make 210 grand a year."
So Monk asks, "And what happened?"
The garbage collector says, "I took a week off, it was enough time for them to realize they didn't need me anymore."
It's odd that things can turn around so easily and you can find yourself in a lesser state. You can find yourself suddenly obsolete and the very thing that you've given all your time to has taken that time and more. It's a situation similar to that described by Rudyard Kipling ,"[to] watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools." But how many of us can stoop and build and use our worn-out tools.
7 comments:
Will E...
This is quite an interesting post really.
But don't you think that with life's pains, heart breaks & sorrow - which come naturally with every day living - it wears out your "tools" ? & therefore... by default - everytime you go through another rough situation - you are in fact using your "worn out tools" whether you choose to or not? or else - people will just stop living. & if this wasnt the case - then you are not human - since every passing day is another brick of you, another memory, another piece of your heart?
Hey Jade, ur name brings back memories btw, but anyway.. I do think that you're right about life's pains wearing out our tools, and that in fact we're using worn out tools.. but once in a while you get that event that takes more than you than you ever thought possible and tears down everything and your worn out tools that were only adequate for sustaining you don't seem good enough to rebuild all that has been lost.. and then, that's when you decide if you are to stoop and try to build things again, and it's my opinion that at times like these a lot of people just stop living.. they don't die, but they just don't choose to live.
wow, i just posted the whole poem!!! interesting, huh :))
anyways, to add some more... i think it takes a lot of will power for someone to start rebuilding what was broken with those "worn out tools"... sometimes even more will power than ones has...
i always thought that poem was almost impossible to apply... i think kipling agrees as well :)
Do your memories of a Jade involve a stripper? Mine certainly do! Lol
Actually my memories involve a dog, a she-dog .. which means that that our memories are somehow similar :)
erm.... Not really - sorry I dont see the connection.
My memory seems to be much cooler than yours man!
Okay so your memory's cooler .. I couldn't agree more.. I have no memories of strippers unfortunately, though I recommend that each one has at least one memory involving strippers for posterity..
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