The Big View
By Maggie Hall
Anonymous state official –
Yes, you, the one who is now long dead -
– Ashes scattered on some site you loved -
Or maybe now a buried skeleton with long-Rapunzel hair filling your wooden coffin.
Or maybe even still alive - an old, old man - age 100 or older
– no teeth, cataract-covered eyes –
Sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home watching TV
- white noise for what is left of your life.
I am thinking about you as I drive in my car.
Thinking about you as I scan the horizon through my windshield/side windows and take in "The Big View:" the kid playing on the lawn close to the road, the blood and guts squirrel body smeared on tar - the red brake lights on the car ahead of me.
The truck on the side road blinking left and looking to pull out – the driver looks impatient.
Possible perils everywhere on the road.
But when I’m doing the "The Big View" all is well –
I am the captain of the ship in the vast ocean of possibilities.
"The Big View:" the lesson you gave my dad 60 years ago when he ran a stop sign and failed his first driver’s license test.
"The Big View:" riding in the back seat of the family car we’d hear your lesson being given - my dad’s hands gesturing across the landscape revealed from the driver’s seat of a car - always emphasizing "The Big View."
State official -
Wherever you are – dead or alive –
Maybe you were an asshole who beat your wife. Maybe you never paid your taxes.
Maybe you loved watching the Wheel of Fortune TV show. Maybe you believed in God.
Maybe not.
All the while "The Big View" was being paid forward through the teenager-young man- middle age man – old man. Then through his wife and daughters, their children and their children.
Just think of all the accidents averted. The lives of cats spared.
The countless lives of humans spared suffering -
As your Big View practitioners maneuver their cars and heed to your words.
An ancient oral tradition being played out.
Generation after generation teaching The Big View
Until after awhile nobody remembers the source.
Anonymous state official – dead or old –
I just want you to know -
Your life did make a difference.
6/1/07
Copyright © 2007 Maggie Hall
