Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Commonalities of Man

This past weekend I had the good fortune of being blessed with a 3 day weekend.
On Saturday, I took advantage of the wonderful warm weather and strung my hammock up at Paradise, right next to the Flagler Museum. I was minding my own business while reading Call of the Wild and simply enjoying the day.
After about half an hour an elderly couple strolled up to eat lunch on one of the benches facing downtown West Palm Beach and the Intracoastal. We exchanged pleasantries in passing. The man commented on how it appeared that I had a nice rig set up while his wife stated that I appeared to be quite comfortable. I replied in the affirmative to both of their statements. Indeed, it is a nice rig and I was, in fact, relaxed nearly to the point of nodding off. We shot the breeze a bit longer before they had their lunch at which point I continued reading.
While lying there in the hammock, I came to the realization that both I and the elderly man likely were jealous of each other's respective position. On one hand, the elderly man sees his bygone youth and freedom; something that he will never be able to capture again in his lifetime. On the other hand, I see a couple who still enjoys being together after who knows how many years. They have a lifetime full of memories and are hopefully to the point where they are completely one with each other.
This situation also reminded me of the first verse of Old Man, a great Neil Young song from the album Harvest.
Old man, look at my life, I'm a lot like
you were.
Old man, look at my life-twenty four and
there's so much more.
Live alone in a paradise that makes me think
of two.