September 10, 2009

Abigail Thomas


When I was young, the future was where all the good stuff was kept,the party clothes, the pretty china, the family silver, the grown-up jobs. The future was a land of its own, and we couldn't wait to get there. Not that youth wasn't great, but it came with disadvantages; I remember the feeling I was missing something really good that was going on somewhere else, somewhere I wasn't. I remember feeling life passing me by. I remember impatience. I don't feel that way now. If something interesting is going on somewhere else, good, thank god, I hope nobody calls me. Sometimes it is all I can do to brush my teeth-- toothpaste is just too stimulating.

The future was also the place where the bad stuff waited in ambush....Now I know I can control my tongue, my temper, and my appetites, but that's it. I have no effect on weather, traffic, or luck. I can't make good things happen. I can't influence the future, and I can't fix the past. What a relief.

- A Three Dog Life: A Memoir, by Abigail Thomas via the August 2006 issue of Real Simple magazine

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