John stood at the window of his fifth floor office and smiled at the traffic on the street below. All those cars speeding past with their Monday morning drivers jockeying for a position nearer to the front of the line. Only to have to slam on their brakes again as the light on the corner of Grand St. turned red. In their eagerness to get to the jobs they hated, they’d start inching forward with each second that passed until the light would turn green and they could stomp on the accelerator to go another ¼ mile before screeching to a stop again on Jefferson.
He turned his attention to a group of little kids in the park across the street. Amused at how they clutched their mother’s fingers with one hand while they tried to toss bread crumbs from the other. Then they would quickly back away and peer out from behind the legs of their protector as the ducks and pigeons scurried forward to snatch them up. Jumping up and down with joy they would point their fingers and giggle at the fascination of it all.
“You know, it really doesn’t take much to make people happy. I sure wish you would have learned that lesson years ago.” John said, as he turned around to look at his lifeless body slumped over the desk. Its face buried in the quarterly reports that just had to be finished. It was still wearing the same suit he had worn to work on Friday.
Jerry Brotherton
Mostly fiction mixed with a little poetry and a smidgen of real life drama
Most lessons are learned too late, unfortunately… Next time around should be better?
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Sad but so true. Thanks for dropping by my friend.
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WP won’t register my like
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So sorry my friend, I do hope someone will come up with an answere to solve your dilemma.
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Brilliant
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Thank you my friend. Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate your support.
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We prioritize the wrong things and it’s the difference between simply being alive … and living.
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Oh so true my friend. People always ‘put it off until tomorrow’.
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Gets you right in the gut!
Glad we started our Endless Weekend!
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”
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I’ve read many stories with a twist at the end.
But this is by far the best when the twist at the end packs a very important message.
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I thank you my friend for the words of encouragement.
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John learned too late that all finishing the Friday reports is going to get him is room in his in-basket for more reports to do. It took me quite a while to learn it, too, but at least the light dawned while I was still alive.
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Same here. Now that i am retired, Sometimes I look back and wonder, “What the hell was I thinking?”
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😦
VERY important message and life lesson! Excellent, Jerry!
I’ve always looked for the joy and fun in each day and if there is none, I will create some! 😀 People MUST find ways to not let the grind take them down. Schedule some fun on the calendar and let it take precedence over other stuff. 🙂
HUGS!!! 🙂
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Absolutely my friend. It took years, and a stroke, before I realized that myself.
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Great story! We get so caught up with basic survival/jobs/bills that we forget about living!
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Ain’t that the truth. Sometimes I wonder if ‘The Walton’s’ didn’t have it right. Everybody in the family lived in the same house in order to survive.
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