Who Said That?

I was taken back to my childhood the other day, whilst listening to the radio. There was a record playing with the line: "Hey baby, let your hair hang down..." and this brought back a memory of me being totally bewildered by this apparent contradiction. Being too young at the time to be familiar with the common parlance of beatnik romance, I couldn't understand how a baby could let its hair down when it was apparent to anyone that babies have insufficient hair on their heads for any such abandoned activity. I remember being tremendously puzzled by many other such matters like this – I was a naive and withdrawn child you see, with very few social skills at all. Growing up in poverty in the backstreets of Naples, I simply didn't get exposed to the normal fashionable vernacular of modern 'cool' culture, such as it was.

Another phrase that used to confound me was: "Enjoy yourself – it's later than you think". How, I used to wonder, could it ever be later than I thought it was? To me, time was something indisputable, something rational, and something that could easily be discerned simply by looking at the clock. Surely, time could never be something arbitrary or something that could ever be mistaken? But now of course, now that I am old and decrepit, I am only too aware of what such an adage can mean. These days it nearly always is much, much 'later than I think'. I am constantly running against the clock anyway, but my predicament is normally worse than that – I have procrastinated and hesitated for most of my life in the absurd belief that I still have plenty of time to achieve what I want in life.

But then, whilst my feet are still running but going nowhere, and while the rush of life flashes past me on the moving screens by my side, I glance at the watch and realize to my horror that it really is, almost too late. So it usually is later than we think, and we should therefore never, ever be complacent about anything and we should always, always seize every opportunity we can and make the most of what we are offered. I can also remember being puzzled as a child by something my grandmother often used to say to me: "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, and try again." I could never understand why there had to be three occurrences of the word 'try' in that maxim. Surely, I would think, it would be enough to say: "If at first you don't succeed, then try again." Little did I heed the true meaning of my grandmother's warning – that success often doesn't materialize on the second attempt either. As I said, I was very naive as a child.

Mind you, I don't think it was restricted to my childhood, this confusion of mine. As a teenager, I was frequently frustrated by the line: "I can see clearly now the rain has gone, I can see all obstacles in my way..." You see, in my limited imagination I reasoned that if there are 'obstacles in the way', how could it be claimed that anyone can 'see clearly'? Obviously I had no sense of irony in those days. Or perhaps I was just plain stupid?

Anyway, seeing clearly now, I can also see all the obstacles in my way of getting to Paris tomorrow. Before I can leave I have a list of things to do that is as long as the Channel Tunnel itself (even though I'm flying). So, I'd better get off this blog and get on with my chores. It is, after all, later than I think.....