Humpty Dumpty
Last week, I had to drive “over the hill” for an emergency dental appointment. It’s a trip I have taken often, but I hadn’t driven Beverly Glen for more than fifteen months. So while the route from my home to Beverly Hills felt familiar, it also seemed vaguely different.
For some reason it reminded me of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, Couldn’t put Humpty together again.” (And not because he was a rotten egg.)
We are now engaging in many of the activities that we missed during the pandemic. People are traveling and socializing. Shops and restaurants are reopening after what seemed like a brief break that has lasted forever. But even as businesses open, not everything will be as it was before. And maybe that’s a good thing.
Two weeks ago, for the first time in more than a year, I enjoyed lunch inside a restaurant. I realized that one reason I have successfully shed twenty pounds during the past fifteen months is that restaurants serve too much food. I eat more sensible portions at home. In the future I plan to adopt my dad’s system of eating out. When his meal was served he would always ask for a box, and put half of his food into it before starting to eat. My dad was a smart man.
Now I’m left wondering how much of my life will go back to being the same as it used to be. How much can “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” really put back together again.
Since we are all creatures of habit, I don’t expect to wake up tomorrow morning eager to play the piano in my living room – the piano I have walked past without touching it for many years. Nor do I expect to develop a yearning for Brussel sprouts. Yuck!
But now I am less likely to suffer fools gladly. Over the past year and a half, I have enjoyed reading and watching sports on TV. I have enjoyed my own company. I realize more than ever that I do not like to be “trapped” in long, conversations on topics I don’t really care about.
Whatever the future holds, I’m not going to fall off the wall like Humpty Dumpty. But I plan to appreciate all of the improvements I have discovered, and hope to permanently adopt many into my “normal” life.
And if I do fall off the wall, as we all did in March of 2020, I’m going to enjoy that journey as well.
Alan