Tapestry

I came across this picture of a beautiful maiden, I knew long ago. She didn't have a clue. Really. She did not think she was beautiful. She did not even think she was smart, even though she was and still is one of the most brilliant minds I have ever known. Amongst us, there was another beautiful maiden, very talented, bright and edgy. A super-star-to-be, for sure and certain. She now moves millions with the touch of a button. She now kills rattlesnakes with a hoe. And me, puzzling over politics, collecting broken glass, dreaming of other worlds, footlights and curtain calls, now sitting with the unsettled, the insane, the murderous, without a second thought. Of late, I have thought of all I have achieved and what more I have received, of all I have given up, unknowingly and with full knowledge. I think about what I have built and what I might yet do and what I will always be beyond me. When I see that picture, I think about how our paths have gone where we never dreamed they would go and did not go where we hoped they would. I think about our children, who, after all we've been through, think we know nothing, when really we knew nothing much, but know quite a lot now. I suppose we deserve it. We thought the same thing of our parents, but not for quite as long and not so openly. Though I can't help thinking, once I knew a beauty who did not know she was... now I know a woman who is both wise and wonderful.