I was hanging up my shirts, after having just done the laundry, this AM, when I realized that one of my favorite shirts had bitten the dust. The crease along the collar was fraying and the inner material was showing through.
 
Later in the day, my lady had arrived home from her nine-to-five, and I semi-jokingly told her that she really needed to replace that shirt, “Find me another one. You know, just like you did when your sister had lost one of the earrings we had given her and she went all obsessional nuts and needed another one to complete the set.”
 
The funny thing was, as she told me, her sister had just recently contacted her, sending her a photo of that earring set and telling her how she remembered how much she loved them, way back in the way back when. …This all took place like thirty-some years ago…
 
My lady reminded her sister of how she had lost one of the earrings and how she and I had to go on a major quest to re-find and re-give that gift we had originally given. But, all of that was forgotten in the mind of her sister. All she remembered was that she loved those earrings. I guess that’s good enough; right? What more can you hope for but someone still loving a gift you gave them so long ago?
 
Anyway, my lady refused to even try to re-find me another example of that shirt. That’s just who she is.
 
It was a dark blue print snap shirt made by Wrangler. I love snap shirts! “Long tails,” as I noticed it said on the label as I was throwing it away. But, now it is gone.  Gone, and no one but me even cares.
 
Isn’t life a lot like that? You care. But, who else cares about what you care about?
 
It’s kind of like the great Cat Stevens, (Yusuf Islam), song, Oh Very Young:
 
“What will you leave us this time
You're only dancing on this Earth for a short while
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like your daddy's best jeans
Denim Blue fading up to the sky
And though you want him to last forever
You know he never will
(You know he never will)
And the patches make the goodbye harder still”
 
He was and is a great lyricist.
 
I think back to this one time, a long-long time ago. This lady who I was into, and I went to this beach. It was a cloudy SoCal day. One of those days where the marine layer takes over the sky and there is no sun. But, the waves were calling. She and I wanted to dive into the sea, but I had no swimming attire.
 
…Though there were more than a few times, way back in the way back then, when I would just rip off my clothes and dive into the ocean in the raw. But, there were some other people around. So, that didn’t seem appropriate.
 
She, the girl I was with, told me to take these scissors she had and just cut my pants into shorts. The problem was, I really loved those pants. They were one of my favorites at the time. But, never being one to not live in the moment, I did it, (reluctantly). I cut them off. We dove into the ocean and lived what it was that we lived. The only problem was, once that experience was over, all I had was a pair of cut off pants. Pants that I really loved. Shorts I did not. The girl lost nothing. Me, my pants were gone forever and though I tired to find another pair, I never could.
 
But, here comes the reality of life, nothing last forever. Not you, not I, not the things we love and care about. It will all be gone.
 
Maybe, in some cases, there are those of us who truly experience the loss of that Some Thing. But, does anyone else care about what we cared about? Probably not. And, that’ just the reality of reality. We hold onto what we love, but what we love will eventually be gone. Gone, just like you and me. Then what?