Be
careful, my people told me—
If you
play for the game, the big game, don’t become too thin
And in
the process miss a thousand little chances under your nose…
There’s a
spirit of the times, I’ve learned in most things, in life!
A right
time, and a wrong time.
A time to
be satisfied, lest you end up a pauper…
There is
no secret, just be aware of the times!
Times
change, and you got to change with them, if you want to be
Part of
them…
If you’re
one of the small potatoes, and remain so, and times are right, it
may change, and become the times for the
big potatoes—
To win,
you must learn to be satisfied.
Funny,
but we can all see it after it happens, when it is too late.
Me, I was
a small potato in a big potato patch, my heath told me, I could
should I wish, take the chance and
become one of the big potatoes!
Well, you
must think quicker than a wink, and remain cool as an icicle, and
I was no longer wild as an Indian, as I
was in my youth
Most of
the fire and vinegar had left me, I was heading into old age when I
played that game, plus I had an illness
that never heals complete…!
And that
settled me down, and I got into the game at the right time, and out
at the right time, and yes, I know how
lucky I was!
Had I
stayed in the game, I would have been a rich corpse.
But it
goes something like this: had I become rich in my youth, I’d never
would have traveled, and I would have
had nothing to write about
today, except money, drinking and women!
Plus, I’d
never would have had time to meet my wife, Rosa, and would not
have had two homes, one by the ocean and
one in the Andes, and
retired at fifty-two;
I didn’t
get it all, but I beat the odds, and took a little of the whole thing, to
quench my spirit of everything;
In other
words, what I got in youth, was cheap, which has kept me from the
poorhouse in old age.
No:
4563/Written 9-29-2014
