As we grow up, our coursework and our cultures can encourage rigidity about many concepts of grammar and, more poignantly, about who people are “supposed to be” and how much we expect everyone and everything to be “normal.”
Having spent a significant portion of my formative years in the 1980s, a lot of my pop culture references are considerably dated. Most are still more or less apropos of any given situation.
As you read this sentence, you’re getting older. Wait, you just did it again. Now you did it again. You can’t stop, and I won’t get in your way. But before we get all our farfalle twisted into bow ties of despair, remember: we’re not alone. The cats are aging, too.
It’s entirely possible that we have galumphing hordes of grandparents on our hands. We’re rich, kittens. Who among us, whether seven or seventy-seven, couldn’t use a good Grandpa or twelve?
“OM” – classic and concise. “Oh, mama, papa, buy me pizza” — often used in my youth, now in disuse (“oh, no, I gotta buy my own pizza,” and “oh, hubby-wubby, buy me pizza,” just don’t have the same ring).
Quick: tell me your favorite words of all time. I’ll go first: Beloved. Ubiquitous. Delightful. Ginormous. Luminous. Irrevocable. Mine all happen to describe cats.
When I was asked, as a little girl, what I wanted to do when I grew up, I’m certain I never chirped, “I want to write cat obituaries!” I still don’t. But love bids me otherwise, and here we are again, too soon for another Forever Loved.
Fat Tuesday is feeling a little gaunt this year. New Orleans itself has replaced Mardi Gras with something called Yardi Gras, which is well intentioned but sounds like a gimmick for selling patio furniture.
We are not in control.* We are not as powerful as cats. But we are not entirely helpless.