Days of Future Past

Paige: My sister and I are part of RB's present, but the past has a tendency to catch up to some folks, and the future looms.

Monica: Oh no, not again...

Paige: Hey, pipe down. This is serious stuff.

Monica: Yeah, yeah. Maybe, just maybe, you should consider getting a career in movies. But I don't think RB needs drama right now.

Paige: Well, I couldn't agree with you more. But it isn't RB's drama I was talking about.

Monica: Oh? Then do say, whose drama are you talking about?

Paige: Well, unbeknownst to our readers out there...

Monica: Do people actually talk like that?

Paige: Shush. Now, as I was about to say, RB's grandmother passed away a few weeks ago.

Monica: Ah. I was wondering what you were getting at.

Paige: Yes indeed. Now, RB is dealing just fine. It is why he's been quiet these past few weeks, but mostly because he has many things on his mind right now. Interestingly, it's his parents who aren't dealing. On the one side we have his mother, a who woman is holding a deep well of resentment toward her mother. It appears that even death will not make the pain go away.

Monica: Ouch.

Paige: Now on the other we have RB's father who sees his own mortality racing toward him on the horizon. Yet even as he faces the inevitable, he cannot help but let his own nature and feelings of invulnerability get in the way. He knows death will eventually come, but believes it will happen on his terms, on his timing.

Monica: Hey, even dolls know that accidents can happen. Nothing is forever.

Paige: Yes indeedy. So it's good that his father wants to include RB in preparations for the future, but he doesn't seem willing to prepare for all contingencies. What this means is that, should anything unexpected happen, RB will be left holding the bag. Unfortunately, this bag won't necessarily be full of chocolaty goodness, but probably the hands of lawyers and judges all reaching out for their pieces of the pie.

Monica: Uhm, aren't you mixing your metaphors, there?

Paige: It's a grab bag of metaphors. Raise the pie higher, I say. Or maybe that was G. W. Bush...

Monica: Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Now I'm sounding the like the reasonable one. What's up with that?

Paige: Ok, ok. All I'm saying is that sometimes the past sneaks up on us in interesting ways, and sometimes the future is here before you know it. We all have to learn to let go of the past, and let the future be the future. We should not put our own expectations on it, but recognize that by definition the future is unknowable.

Monica: So, all that your saying is that we should all live in the present.

Paige: Uhm, yeah. Right. That's another way to put it.

Monica: Let go of the past, prepare for the future, but live in the present. Got it. Was that so hard to say?

Paige: Well... actually... uh... no, I guess it wasn't.

Monica: Ok, then. Well, there you go, folks. Wisdom of the day from dolls. Carpe diem and all that. Have a good day!