Hula hoop dreams.

It rained today, this loosely translated means I slept and did nothing for most of it. I did have lunch with a friend, listen to some Rick James and stop in an Irish Tavern for a Guiness all of wich provided me with laughter and motivation to not continue letting this record play on repeat for too much longer. On my way home I missed a turn and took the long way home through Waterbury. Stopped at a red light I noticed a little boy maybe three or four years old playing in the rain with a broken hula hoop. He and the man with him walked into the check cashing place and the boy brought the trashed and broken hula hoop in with him, the light turned green and I drove away. I have a cousin around the same age as this boy, he lives in suburbia, has plenty of hula hoops and toys scattered all over the yard, and addresses his aunts and uncles by their first names only.Where he's being raised broken toys are not good enough and are easily replaced and therefore discarded, where this hula hoop boy is growing up any toy broken or not is a good toy.

When I graduated high school someone gave me a copy of "Oh, the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess. I wonder if i'd been born in a different environment, lived on a farm, grown up in a big city, if my life would have taken me to this same chair writing these same words. I wonder if that little boy started out with a broken hula hoop or if he just loved it so much he wore it out. Obviously, I don't know the kids situation outside of my personal observations but I do know as I watched him for that moment hop in and out of his split and broken hula hoop he looked just as happy to be there if not happier than my cousin in suburbia. I'd like to be that happy. I'd like to be able to have fun with the broken things in the world around me. Am I the hula hoop or the boy? Will I let a little dirt and damage ruin an otherwise good time or will I get over the molehills through the mountains and get back on the train. I think its going to be a long hike, but the train comes through again soon and I need to be on it.