Choices Made

When I was a boy, I never planned for my future

as a young man. I never had expectations that a

formal education would get me anywhere. Still,

I went where I was told to go, and did or did not

do what I was told to do (come rain or shine, and

depending upon my attitude on any given day).

When I was a young man, I got married and had a

child early on. At the time, I had no plan for that. I

simply took each day as it came, and somehow

muddled through. I had no designs or thoughts of

fortune or fame. And so it was no surprise to me

that neither of those ever came. I managed to get

by on that which I earned. As a middle-aged man,

I had neither desire nor plans to retire. I’d simply

quit or move along whenever my mood or the

muse inspired me. The other day at the clinic the

nurse asked me to rate my pain level on a scale of

one to ten. I snickered my reply: When I’m quiet

and motionless, about a two or three; when moving

around, I’d say a seven or eight; some days or situa-

tions may strap me with a nine or ten. It was then I

came to realize that I am a simple man who over a

lifetime had no precise and defined plan. I never was

any good at math either, but given the advanced age

age which came over me with a swift and pronounced

certainty, my situation has been reduced to evaluation

on a scale between one and ten. Without any prior

consideration or planning for that, I reckon that given

my present condition and position, a scale not exceed-

ing ten seems quite reasonable to me. At this point in

my life, what in hell choices do I have, anyway?

Chris Hanch 7-1-19