The poem I chose to write about today was Muck-Clump by Mark Halliday. I believe the meaning behind this poem was pretty simple and straight forward. Here we have a father who goes to help his daughter and after being corrected by his wife about the amount of cereal she eats, starts to think to himself that he is right and she's wrong. He spends the rest of the morning contemplating how he will say "I told you so" but once he realizes that his wife was right, shows us that maturity is the right thing to do and just leave it behind you. Move on with your day and be productive.
There was also another feeling in the poem. One that after his wife told him to give their daughter more cereal, that he starts to realize he doesn't really know his daughter all that well. That he missed her growing up some. She's bigger now. Able to eat more. Do things on her own. He starts to think that time has gone by to fast and that he's been left on the side of the road. He feels that he isn't really helping raise his daughter. That everyone else around him is doing all the work.
This point of the poem, from the first paragraph could be applied to just about anyone in today's society. It's easy to just assume your right and when you find out your not, to get mad or get even. But the better thing to do is to admit, even if it's just to yourself, that you were wrong and just move on. Get it out of the way and then go do something. As for the second paragraph, everyone feels like this at some point. Once you have the epiphany and realize it, you can easily fix it. It doesn't have to involve your kids if you have any, but anything else in your life. If you feel that your not involved enough, then get involved.
Your final paragraph is especially interesting. I hadn't thought about our current society as a kind of unapologetic, stubborn "Father" figure. However, your comment makes a lot of sense. Do you think we are less interested in compromise and more interested in being right? Why is that?
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by your second paragraph, too. I can see how there might be elements of regret in the poem. The father feels left out somehow. Is it his fault, though, or the wife's? Or both? Or nobody's?
Good stuff...
SM
I think by default, by human nature, we are competitive. So we always want to be right. Even if you don't realize that's how your thinking. However, everyone has epiphanies. Where your either just sitting there and thinking, or you literally wake up one day and realize something. Maybe someone discusses something with you, like mentioning that by human nature we always want to be right. You then understand and start paying more attention to said nature and by doing so, your able to "step out of the box" and keep yourself from doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt could be the fathers fault, and most of the time it will be. Either willingly, or accidental. What's more important is now that he realizes he feels this way, or that he's missed out on his daughters growing up, what will he do? Will he strive to improve? Or just go along with it.