A friend pointed me out to this fantastic poem that said..(and I excerpt):
"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me...
...I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .
. . .But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple
The other day I met people from years ago at an informal reunion o
f old school friends. The last time we'd seen each other, we were still in pigtails and uniforms and just months past the braces and giggles.
Indrani reminded us more than once of occasions that involved what she called my "brashness" and "spontaneity" but meant my erstwhile propensity to relentlessly and loudly stomp where no one had stumbled before. I used to have chronic foot-in-the-mouth disease in my tom-boy days!
And yet, as I have grown up, I have miraculously managed to make a career as a communication professional! I have to admit, though, that as I have grown more responsible, more correct, more political, more restrained, more stable, I have grown less honest to my "self."
"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me...
...I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .
. . .But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple
The other day I met people from years ago at an informal reunion o
f old school friends. The last time we'd seen each other, we were still in pigtails and uniforms and just months past the braces and giggles.Indrani reminded us more than once of occasions that involved what she called my "brashness" and "spontaneity" but meant my erstwhile propensity to relentlessly and loudly stomp where no one had stumbled before. I used to have chronic foot-in-the-mouth disease in my tom-boy days!
And yet, as I have grown up, I have miraculously managed to make a career as a communication professional! I have to admit, though, that as I have grown more responsible, more correct, more political, more restrained, more stable, I have grown less honest to my "self."
Thanks for the inspiration, Jenny Joseph. You would've enjoyed the giggles if you'd seen the silliness at Cafe Coffee Day on Ballygunje Circular Road that afternoon.
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