Pushing a Train
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"You're never too sure when to get off." Glen tells us about what it feels like reaching forty and how his children have helped him see that he doesn't need to act his age.
Transcript
"The one thing they don't tell you about becoming an adult is that its like being on a long train journey but you're never sure when to get off.
They don't stamp your ticket as a brass band plays arousing fanfare ... the best you can hope for is a couple of Cazoos and a triangle if you're lucky.
Give or take a few hang ups, adults suggest grow old with wrinkles and I suppose I'm one of the wrinkliest kids on the street. I'm not saying that I like to run around singing nursery rhymes ... I'm not saying that ... other people are saying that.
When I was younger, I never realised that the sense of the ridiculous was a luxury I have to trade in one day like handing back a pair of very expensive shoes and being told that I get to keep the laces.
When I became a father, I knew that I had to become more responsible, which I did. But my children love me most of all when I'm being stupendously silly. In other words, they let me keep the shoes, but back on the train and there's a thousand miles of track ahead.
My daughters have taught me that rain is a miracle that is spoilt by an umbrella and mermaids can't dance. This hasn't helped me pay the bills but it's certainly helped soften the blow.
Most people say you don't seem forty when they really mean you don't act forty.After a short pause, I decided to take it as a compliment. I still love that first thrill of excitement when I see the ocean or when it snows; when I wrote a song or see a beautiful face.
As I watch my children lost for hours in a world of their own desires with no borders, politics or prejudice, I feel very privileged. I'm staying on this train as long as I can by the way, it's steam and it takes a lot longer to get there."
(Music: "Pushing a Train" Davies / Lawrence)
An interview with the author
How would you describe yourself Glen?
I'm a warm, intelligent, sensitive, creative poet - trapped in the body of an OAF.
Your story has an interesting title Glen. What's it about?
It's about the journey from childhood to middle age and how comfortable it may or may not turn out to be. I'm on the train and I can't get off (even though I've tried hard enough - only kidding!).
How did you find the workshop?
It was a fascinating, rewarding, sociable and highly creative experience (and that was just reporting to reception).
Your comments
"I wish i was on the same train !! what a great way to look at life, stay as younge as you can for as long as you can i say. Great story"
Catherine, Llanelli.
