happy birthday, meg... i hope yr day's been fine... may they all be... fine...

now i was out to eat this evening with bob and dom... about 5:30... we tried a few spots before finding one that wouldn't have an hour's wait... we remembered that today is the last day of the year 2003... the day for most folks to leave the cooking to someone else... and we were no different...

so we settled in and had a fair to middling dinner and around near the end of the meal... dom and bob being finished... the waiter looks toward me and asks, 'you still workin' on it?' and just then i remembered how much i hate that expression...

workin on it? no sir... not workin' on it... i'm eating it... i thought to myself... this here activity is known as eatin', not workin'... feeding my body... not chopping wood... well i had a cranky old geezer moment... but it passed... i finished eating... paid the bill... with a pretty good happy new year tip... and we headed home...

workin' on it... sounds like i've got this big old gross dismembered leg of cow and i'm sitting there in the greasy campsmoke gnawing and gnawing away... spitting little bits into the dust... wiping grubby fingers in grubby black hair hanging down over these bloodshot eyes... a real sauvage... greedy growling every now and then... or barking a bit toward these other carnivores whose dead cow parts are not as choce as mine... still workin' on it... you bet...

workin' today meant reading papers... deciphering what had been scribbled down by frantic seniors intent on filling up pages and pages in a single hour two weeks ago... and some of it ain't so bad... some is pretty good... and workin' today meant counting posts... just counting posts till my eyes explode... putting tiny dots on the sheet... mostly green dots today for 'as i lay dying'... ordinary pencil dots tomorrow for the poetry posts... once i finish the exam essays... and well before i finish the poetry papers... such is the life i lead...

now i'm waiting for the new year... workin' my way back to 2004... here it comes... i spy a dusty cloud on the horizon... it's about 10:49 if the computer clock's to be trusted... and i'll be dreaming across the line into 2004... how far we've come... this far... a new number for us all... best wishes to you dear reader for peace and some real satisfaction in the true work of time to come...

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Mother Teresa

 

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