Or, to be more precise, I saw what I always thought would be my life: Mom, Dad and 2 kids in a midsize SUV with kayaks on top and a pop-up camper behind.
This vision appeared as I entered my seventh hour in the middle seat of our minivan--the dog, that spoiled mutt, was riding shotgun, while I tried to entertain the baby and help the back row with their stickers, maps, and etch-a-sketches.
When I remarked to my husband that I had just seen my (not) life pass me by, he immediately corrected me: "No, we passed them." Well, yeah. True in all senses. Not even a contest. Though I do look forward to reclaiming that front seat.
6 comments:
Modern culture has it backward. The rear seat is the seat of honor. The chauffeur is simply the hireling. Anyone that sits up front with the chauffeur is lower than the chauffeur, often being his lowly assistant. Those the chauffeur humbly serves sit comfortably in the plush rear compartment, the safest seats in the vehicle, shielded from all the unwelcome sights and dangers of the road. The further from the front-end crumple-zone, the more honorable the seats.
Umm, right! So how do you explain that the back seats aren't nearly as comfortable as the front? ;)
He's right about you passing them. Occasionally I'll look at others and think they have it better. Then I look at what I've got and think, "not possible".
My high school boyfriend was in town last week. He's the one that, should I have stayed on that path, I would have galavanted all over the world with. He'd paint, sketch, and charcoal. I'd take fabulous grainy black and white photographs, and process the prints in the bathroom/darkroom. We'd live in grungy apartments in the hippest of worldly cities, and create Art.
Instead, here I am, in small town America with my steady, stable, faithful Husband, my 3 bedroom (crib in one!), 2 bath house, complete with two car garage and Beagle in the back yard, getting ready (?) to start my family and yearning for SAHM status.
I could sense his disappointment and he actually said that I had "sold out" - but what I couldn't get through to him is that I wouldn't trade my real life for that one. No how, no way.
I can always take fabulous grainy black and white photos - I still remember how - they'll just be of fat little baby feet instead of foreign strangers.
Enjoy that middle seat. You're right in the action. The center of the world. As you should be.
Moormama- Sounds like heaven!
Kayaks! Waaaaaaaaaaaah!
Kayaks? Woah.
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