Superfluous

Don't you just hate people who put that kind of garbage on other people?? great poem, I can hear the little niggly so-sorry voices...keep on keepin' on, Mary!

ah, mary - everyone has worth, and beauty, and should be cherished. the things you describe aren't necessarily the meaning of life.

Being alive is justification enough.

`You are alive, a human being & a productive member of ociety...is that not enough reason?

it depends on whether or not the person feels welcome in society or having prsonal value, does it not? sometimes society robs people of dinity and sense of self-worth. there's nothing like getting it in your face perpetually that because you haven't got kids, you aren't worth anything and don't know anything about life...

and then there's that other little ratty thing abut reminding folks constantly that being alone is uncool..

"well, what are you doing her? I suppose your husband works here, doesn't he?"

"you mean you've no husband?"

as you get older, it's more constantly shoved in your face that you really don't know anything about life at all...

The poem needs spell check for one!

And I did it for you...here!

"What justification is there for my life?
Being no man's woman and no man's wife?
I have no place to call my home,
not even an office or a telephone.
Who am I to have the right
to sleep securely through the night,
a woman that nobody needs
something akin to dandelion weeds
or infernal ever-blowing thistle seeds
that after drifting around
infiltrate rich ground
and infect the soil
and create more burdensome toil
yet I am not so fertile
while my life is sterile.
Who am I
to have a life?"


As for as thoughts go, I feel no one, absolutely no one is worth our peace of mind!

I totally agree, Julie. The older I get the less I seem to care about what other people think of me, so long as I am happy and loved by the people who matter.

I know that being alone can be hard on the self-worth in a world that seems geared to couples, but you have an awful lot of company! I spent many years as a single person before I finally met my guy. I've never thought it was "uncool" and it certainly doesn't signify a lack of value. The thoughtless persons who imply that there is something wrong with you because you are single are ignorant and should be disregarded as foolish people unworthy of your attention.

Maybe you could try to look at your status as an opportunity to do more of the things you enjoy, without restraints. I mean, look at all the freedom you have! If I were you I'd find a really rewarding volunteer opportunity and go to town with it. There's NOBODY who is more appreciated than a competent volunteer, and what a great way to meet likeminded people! I've always thought that some day when I am retired or semi-retired I will do wildlife rehab 5 days a week.

I agree that middle aged women, single or otherwise, seem to become invisible in our society once they no longer fit the role of youthful sex symbol. I'm in my early forties, and have found myself ignored by clerks at retail counters in favor of men or young women. Believe me, I put up a fuss about it! There's no reason for us to take this lying down. Uppity women unite!

There is just something wrong about publicly revising someone's work without their consent.

gautami-- three dropped "e"s and an added "a" is hardly worth your hullabaloo

so everyone knows that I have spastic hands-- nothing new--thanks for all the noise

Ludof-- that's great repartee

thanks
the verse is ancient and out of a different box. I was looking for something else and decided that I could toss it here.

Kristina--

sorry to disagree, some people are spontaneous editors, but i doubt if this bit of trivia was worth the effort that gautami put into cutncopy revision

she can revise all she wants, is okay-- obviously she has an editorial streak in her

"something wrong about publicly revising someone's work without their consent." Kristina G

aunt smedley-

"I've always thought that some day when I am retired or semi-retired I will do wildlife rehab 5 days a week."


does that mean that you are going to give physical therapy to spiders who have had their legs torn off by merciless kids?

LOL, Mary. I refuse to rehab any species with more than 4 legs, even if some of 'em have been torn off!

(Isn't that just cruel? My brother used to do that to daddy longlegs when we were kids, but I'm proud to say I never indulged in it.)

Mary, I see we're in the blue corner again. I completely agrees with Ludolf in his response.
I for one can truly say you have inspired me. You are also always there for me with an encouraging voice! ;O)

they grow back on some insects, including grassghoppers-- I accidentally deprived a grasshopper of a leg few days ago and felt unhappy about it. not much you can do-- prosthetics are a bit tough on such a small crittur s that.

OMG, the image of a daddy longlegs wearing prosthetic legs is too much for me! [Wandering off in search of a spider image for photoshopping purposes...]

sorry mona, you didn't seem to see that i was searching for something and came across this in the search-- but actually I think much of life is not about oneself, but the other. we find our fulfilment in others...

but do get tired of all those know-it-all mothers with their screaming , ill-mannered banshee kids, telling me that i can't possibly know anything about life because after all I haven't a child and well...


and at that point I am sometimes inclined to pick their screaming, wild-haired, mean-mouthed kids and shove them down a throat...

sorry, can only be original if you want to submit it to small world-- no copyright violatins or poaching accepted. dislike poaching, I do.

pyrrhonian, you're a lucky sort to have such an attitude-- folks are different and if not we wouldn't have the Wittgensteins worrying existence to death.

Mary, you are welcome to disagree with me to your hearts content, there is no need to be sorry for it.

Mary, .... as a poet I liked, and enjoyed, the writing and questions posed. I have no answers but applaud you or posting this piece be it poetic musing or personal introspection.

Loved this, but hate it that you feel this way. I have been having days very similar to this and I do have a husband and a child, but I do not feel needed most of the time or at least not until my daughter needs something for me to purchase. lol
If you are ever in the Orlando area and want to feel needed then come and visit me because I am lonely and need a good friend.

orry am across the Big Pond and so cannot visit. Besides i just heard that Florida is supposed to wash off into the ocean with California...

you can visit me in Prague--or better yet identify an orchestra near you and I will think about frog-exports again. of course the frog might hop, but maybe i will have a frognet ready for him before he gets away.

I think most people doubt their existence, but few have the courage to admit it-- we all need reasons and purpose to our existence and some take their doubts to an extreme plane while others have the facility to brush them off. others have such strong identification with goals that they rarely doubt their purpose and others seem to have incredible powers of self-delusion and can claim that God gave them all the answers to life, to war, to whatever. I hve sincere douts about those who claim to have or know the will of god and no respect for fundamental Christianity or the Four Spiritual laws and Bible Bangers-- such preaching was lost on me as a kid when Christianity showed me no compassion or reassurance after my brother's death. Chritianity ora at lest the born-again version of it really turned me off...

we struggle with doubts an hardships and in struggling, perhaps we overcome them. So later I looked to Judaism for enlightenment and Judaism offered me thousands of answers as well as new questions...

thank-you John, it was written when I lived in Vienna around 1989

Mary,
You're worth so very much and I do agree with you that either very few to none of us feels that we're worth what we truly are.
One of the hardest things (and one of the things that tend to define us) is when someone asks me or my husband what we do for a living or where we work, and our response is, "I am disabled." That's hard. Being able to work would be much easier as we both know from the times we could.
But it doesn't mean we're useless. We volunteer twice a week for a limited time as that's all and what we can do. We've made many friends as like you, we care about others, and the places we volunteer at, need it.
There's a place for everyone if we only look for it.

Hugs..................and thanks for this one,

I think ovwer there in US, one of the biggest problems is that there is little or no rec0gnition for people who work part-time. Excuse me for my socialism, but one of the most important things in life is to know that you are valued and this is something that is very positive about European socialism that is a carry over from Marxism-- that even if you only work 10hours a week, you are still valuable memeber of society--and it doesn't matter what you do.

In the US, unless you are exploited for virtually unlmited hours of work per week and in the upper middleclass to executive range, you hve zit value and are treated as if you are a parasite. The entire mentality is wrong.

So US executives are grossly overpaid, receive ridiuculous amounts of added benefits which they really don't need whie the people who are the lfieblood of the company struggle to make ends meet-- and this was the basis of the lineworkers strike in Boeing not so long ago-- the gap of payment between the few top officials and the people who make those planes and make them fly is outrageous

but it gets even worse when it comes to Walmart or other basic service industries

and i seems absurd to me that the US system, is set up so that either you are exploited for 40+ hours a week or nothing-- it's extreme situation whereas many disabled or handicaped people would be more than happy to work and receive work credit for time they spent in volunteering or part-time jobs... and they are valuable members of society.


however, the capitalist avaricious mentality of the US, carried over from the 1800';s and Robber barons who created the capitalist system, is that the peole on the bottom are worth nothing unless they can be exploited to nth degree-- and they are not worthy of social support, medical care, etc because we all know what lazy bums they are...


and this mentality of the US disturbs me because medical care is affordable only by those who are well-off and without a healthy population and witout medical care for all people, there can be no real stability in society. The US is crowded with tent cities and then goes off to preach to the nations what a land of opportunity and greatness it is-- and it is just plain bullshit.

If the US is so gret, why can't it care for its own people? Why are kids continually seeking ways to destroy schools with bombs? And why doesn't the US do something about domestic terrorism rather than shift it's arguments and fights overseas? Americans are far more likely to be ki9llled at home and in their own cities by their own crazies rather than some extremist from abroad--

stange country that goes bout screaming about human rights, liberty, blah-blah, but devalues its own people


so when I think of returning, I get spooked by all that I see and read.

I think it is a privliged place to be, to not be encumbered by the social expectations that are placed on most people. It's cleaner. The very opposite on the spectrum would be slavery

what-ho? poverty is slavery and if you want to know the truth, beuing alone in the world is really unfun. you just wait till you get thrown across the street by a car and endure months of broken ribs and contused spleen and punctured lungs for a few months while sturuggling to pay rent---

unencumbered? sorry-- is a lie--

being alone means that you die alone, too.

You are not alone.

"Without hope, we have nothing.
Without living love we have no hope."

Thanks for sharing Mary. And I to you.

thanks Christopher-- but I am surprised that you found this--