CLAM CHOWDER AT LAFAYETTE AND SPRING
P. D. Brassard
For anyone who’s ever been there and
those still waiting to make the trip.
Introduction
Okay, so here it is. You sure you wanna hear this? Well, alright then. Go get yourself a beer, better make that two, sit down and listen up.
This a story to which you should pay a great deal of attention. Yea, you may learn something here. Maybe, you just might learn something.
It’s about you and me, see, what we got, what we want and what we had. The highs, the sky-highs, and the way-down lows. Now, I ain’t saying you’re gonna agree with everything I’m gonna tell ya, you don’t have to. Hey, that, is your prerogative. Like I should care. I’m just telling it like it is.
But do me a favor, don’t interrupt or go jumping to no conclusions or nothing. Hear me out, okay? As with most things in life, give it a chance. Like people. You should listen to what they have to say, listen closely, absorb the information and then assimilate a viewpoint. And only then. But don’t judge. Ain’t no-one on earth with the right to judge someone else. Remember that.
‘What’s it all about?’, I hear you asking, ‘c’mon man, make with the story.’
Okay, it’s about a slice of life. A slice of life like the slice of apple pie your mom used to bake. Remember that? Do you remember the smell of cinnamon, remember the anticipation, the taste, the experience? It was a whole experience, right? Remember how it tasted so good, you had to have another slice, mmm-mm, and then another, and another till you ate so much you felt sick. MOM! And then? And then ya vowed never to eat pie again. Too much of a good thing, huh?
‘Big deal’, you say ‘so what?’.
Well, the ‘so what’ is the slice of pie. This slice of pie is like a metaphor for a slice outta your own life. That’s right. You.
Tell me, you ever experienced that transition in your life where you go from existing to living? Do you know the difference? Where suddenly your whole life has gone from being, from being ‘stuck on survive’ to ‘so much to do, so little time’? I’m talking, like, coming home. A feeling that you have arrived. I am talking about finding that one person, that one special person who makes you feel whole. Someone for whom you would sell your soul. Someone who makes ya feel goofy. Like, doh! You understand?
Okay, then this is good. Imagine then, that this day has come. Imagine, for the first time in your life, you are no longer existing. You feel alive, like suddenly you can do what the heck you like. You have energy, ZAP!, you have enthusiasm, POW!, you wear a perma-grin on your face and you have the stars in your eyes. You can take on the world. Hey, it’s a great feeling, right?
So what if then, what if, what if, BAM! It’s gone. Like, where’d that go? Consider that. Gone. Disappeared quicker than H2O in the Gobi. Emotional drought. Y’ever thought about that? Okay, I hear ya, you’re thinking,
‘This freak’s gonna tell a tale that’s doom and gloom, it’s gonna be depressing, I’m outta here!’.
Well come back, let me tell ya something, it ain’t. It ain’t all doom and gloom. It’s experience. See, in life, no matter what happens, good or bad, it’s all experience and we should embrace that. It makes us wiser people, believe me. It’s enriching.
But you know what? The most important thing to remember here, is that it’s only enriching if we learn from these experiences. What I’m saying is, just cos maybe, something bad goes down, don’t mean we should look back and hate that period of our lives. No, we should look back and see what we have learned from it. How may it have benefited us rather than affected us. We should look back, remember the good times and laugh. Laugh out loud, hahahahaha! And we should remember the bad times. And laugh out loud. And we should cry. Every now and then, we should cry. It’s a release. Cry a river if you have it in you. One thing’s for sure, if it don’t make ya feel better, at least it clears the crud from your eyes.
Okay, so, where was I? Oh yea, the tale. The spiel, the story. Well, it’s kinda like this, see...