THE
RATIONALIZATIONS
OF DAVID THE DAD
Old Ben never came to dinner
Chapter 11
I’m just an old man,
2And I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in my life,
3So it shouldn’t surprise me that I missed so much,
4But I guess I did,
5And I wish someone had set me straight sooner,
6Because I still can’t seem to figure it all out,
7dAnd I still don’t know why all the smart people look at things the way they do,
8And why we can’t just learn about our mistakes as we go,
9And fix them up as best we can,
10And keep going,
11Until someday things are a lot better than they ever were,
12Which is sort of what I always thought history was about,
13eBecause when I used to read about the past in school,
14It seemed like my life was a lot better,
15And people were better nowadays than they used to be,
16Or if not better, smarter,
17fLike with medicine,
18gAnd tractors and cars and such,
19hAnd electricity,
20And the American Way,
21Because they didn’t used to be able to vote kings and emperors out of office when they turned out to be no good,
22And when kings and emperors weren’t any good,
23iIt seemed like they could get away with a lot more than even Roosevelt ever did,
24But what do I know,
25jAnd who am I to say,
26But an old man,
27With a bad memory,
28That’s full of lies anyway.
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Chapter 11 / 29