Hard to Fathom

“Ten years burning down the road. Nowhere to run. Ain’t got nowhere to go.”

Born in the U.S.A. was really overplayed back in the 80’s and it’s still the Springsteen record I listen to the least because I was one of the guys who overplayed it, but I often think about that lyric.

I look back a fair amount, and when I look forward I think of it in simple terms.

“10 years burning down the road.”

Life has been really weird for the last 2 + years, for everyone. A lot that we took for granted has been lost. Things we never thought we’d see happen have happened.

It’s been hard to plan ahead.

But I had the 10 year thought.

God willing I’ll be 67 years old.

All my children will be in their 30’s.

I will have most likely retired from the grind of really long work weeks.

Hard to fathom that I might stay home every day.

I consider that I’d have more time to write, but time has never stopped me from writing before. I can write anywhere and any time. It seems like I enjoy writing after I work a full day.

Not sure I would change much there.

Perhaps we avoid this cold weather crap by going south or west for a few months every year.

Working less also is pretty hard for me to fathom. I’ve never enjoyed change. I’ve always felt as of there were a gun to my head to suffer through eternally long work days, weeks, months and years.

I hear about guys taking the full amount of time to recover from an injury and I don’t know how they aren’t overwhelmed by guilt.

Covid has changed my way of thinking about it a little bit, but I still can’t imagine not being productive somehow.

As for the kids…

…they’ll be out there on their way to some other life.

Obviously they’ve been the center of our lives, but it will be their turn to build and build and build. I’m sure we will have grandparents duties, but that’s different.

They go home.

As for the country…

…who the hell knows?

Will all this rage explode and permanently damage us, or will we somehow rise above it?

What will technology bring?

Back when Born in the U.S.A. came out it was the first record pressed into a compact disc!

Remember those?

Progress has been wild.

Maybe not all that great either. Social media and all the crap it’s brought may be the ruin of us.

Maybe somehow it’ll be less important.

And I don’t know why it has hit me over the head a bit over the last few weeks.

Maybe it was losing a buddy…

…but I can definitely hear that clock ticking.

Long ways to go, hopefully, but Bruce released that record when I was just 20.

Ten years burning down the road seemed to be a long time.

Ten years now?

It’s still the same amount of days as it was back then, but boy, it seems shorter somehow.

It’s all just hard to grasp.