Gumming the carrot

The Shrader house stands quiet tonight, with only a creek here and again. Maybe Ken and Dave are sharpening their axes, maybe Christine is, maybe they are....dead. Maybe they are sharpening the same axe from the wood shed with the bright red handle, each one of them wondering why in the world it's so sharp already. These men may never even gum the proverbial carrot. Christine certainly will not. Let me be clear on what is being said. The striking realization and the gravity of the words "gumming the carrot" that have come to me tonight. The comedy is simple and tragic. The select few of us that achive financial freedom by the time we retire are bound to be too old and tired to enjoy it and will most likely spend the reminder of our days helping our children try to achieve the ever mounting goals of success or spend our fortunes on staying alive with feeding tubes. The american dream is as alive, maybe more alive than ever before. It is further away than ever. The pressure to succed is mounting for the wrong reasons, not for the pure capitalist satisfaction of building something better for yourself but out of sheer panic. It is like a fight that a single sperm must face to the egg. It burns within many but is lost on most. People move accross the globe, switch jobs, get degrees and cut throats to get promotions. The postpone vacations, don't garden, work with their hands or start families. Countless dogs and cats go without owners, gold fish die of neglect and more coffee and tv dinners are sold than ever. We buy houses that are conviniently located to drive to work, pay double for them with mortgages that surpass well into our early retirenment. We buy new cars and drive them into the ground driving to work to pay for them. Yes. Welcome to the rat race.

So how do we enjoy the carrot on a hammock in the sunshine with our own teeth? Not gumming it 40 years too late or worse yet, hanging it out for our kids to chase like we did.