Wanna Play? I have the right to be

This weeks theme is “I have the right to be ________. You fill in the blank. What have you earned the right to be at this stage of your life? Have you achieved it or are you still striving to get there? 

 

I certainly have achieved weirdness and eccentricity, in fact I embrace it wholeheartedly. :D  Absurd? definitely, just ask my husband.  There are many days when he looks at me like I’m unsound and I just laugh.  Creative? Some days more than others.

All this makes me think of the poem “Warning”, by Jenny Joseph. I’m sure your heard of it.  If not, here it is:

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.