Why now, in my retirement, age 70,
have I a vivid dream of being at mid-semester
in a college American History class
and not even knowing when the class meets?
I dream I like the teacher, even the subject,
but I had been sick some, otherwise occupied often,
and absent always… I know I cannot catch up.
Where has the class been meeting?
Who will loan me their notes, and why should they?
Do I even own the textbook or have the syllabus?
The mid-term exam is over; the term paper
for the semester is due soon; the extra credit
readings form a mountain of unread pages;
I don’t know where the library is…
(Am I afraid of a Last Judgment
by God? Have I been truant from life?
Have I spent whole days with trivia, with trash,
with momentary pleasures?)
Then I dream of dying in a head-on car crash.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 2, 2013 having a bad night at 70 😦
Views from the Edge 
What a wonderful, positive dream!
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Yes, Mona. Steve is always thought, as did I, that Norman Vincent Peale and his “power of positive thinking” were for lightweights and cowards. Neither of us has done very well at singing Brian’s song “Look on the Bright Side of Life” in Monte Python’s The life of Brian. Anyway, I’d better stop. Those who don’t know my sense of humor will not understand and I can’t afford to lose readers!
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