My daughter, headed for college in the fall.
Tests of intellectual measure.
Résumés of learning experience,
with an emphasis on community service.
The ubiquitous “what should I do with my life” counselors,
seminars, self help books at Barnes and Noble.
My wife and I agonize over advice.
Want for sure to point our daughter in the right direction.
Not presently mindful of the life’s lesson,
which we will only learn 15 years from now:
wish we currently had some home grown mice
to test our best laid plans.
Pragmatism seeping into the cubby holes
of high school guidance counselors.
There was a time when dreams,
lofty goals, and limitless imaginations
made public service the primary option.
Now these young people worry as well
about finding a job
when they receive their diplomas, formerly sheep skin,
now faux plastic covers,
downloaded from the Internet,
printed and framed at Office Max.
My father sits in a comfortable chair in the living room
engrossed in a book
while we three debate at the computer.
He looks up, his reading glasses pushed down
to the tip of his noise, mutters:
“Two recession resistant occupations –
Funeral Director and Garbage Collector.
Everyone spends their life making waste….
and then dies.”
Ray Brown
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