Nothing Measures Up

Have you enjoyed times in your life where you thought everything was perfect?

I have had a couple of times like that in my nearly 60 years of life. The earliest one goes back to when I was between 3 and 4 years old. We lived in Bondurant in a small rented house. Kelly Dean Jones lived across the street and he was my best friend. We spent hours together getting into trouble, fighting and playing in his sand pile that his cat thought was a litter box.

My parents were young. Dad worked at a Dairy. And Mom stayed home to take care of me. We would go places together. Mom would take me shopping for goldfish. I was fascinated even then by fish. At night Dad would come home. We would go for rides in the car and I would fall asleep, miraculously waking up in my bed the next morning. We went to Dairy Queen, the A&W drive in and Millie's. We went to church on Sundays and Grandpa and Grandma's on weekends. I had a beagle named Buppy...(don't ask) and my world was good....perfect. I had everything a kid could want in 1960 and we were not rich, not by a long shot.

And then something happened. I can't say what it was (won't), but our relationships changed. We moved to Des Moines, I went to school, Mom went to work part time and Dad seemed to stay at work as much as possible. Everything seemed like it was ruined. Dad did not like me anymore, Mom was too tired to do stuff, and Kelly Dean was far away in Bondurant. On weekends, I got farmed out to Grandpa and Grandma. That was not bad. It really was a farm and a farm is an education for a city kid and I had a good time. Only child types tend to create worlds in their heads and that's what I did. I talked to myself a lot.

You do that when you spend most of your life alone. And now at 60, I'm doing it again. Everyone of them has left me. I should have expected it. They were always doing that. They always came back before though.  

All those people are dead now. They weren't perfect, but I loved them. Now I truly am an orphan. My imagination does not work nearly as well as it once did, so imaginary friends are hard to come by. I guess I never thought there would be a time when I could not talk to them. And that's odd, because I have seen death take many people that I have been close to. Nothing is forever I guess except God. Not even perfect moments. I'm glad I had some. Heaven is supposed to be like that. We will see if that's true soon enough. Will there be anymore perfect moments? I guess that's up to me isn't it...and the grace of God.