Should We All Wear Hats?: Volumes I & II

“Life is a series of events that aren’t always connected and sometimes you just have to wait for the thing you want most.” –Adam, Adam’s Journal: A Novel.

Each generation finds its distractions, little addictions that make us feel something, that connect us to others in our world. We live in these spaces between obligation and necessity, these little spaces which sustain our cores, feed our souls.

Adam discovers such truths as he navigates from high school’s first kiss to the many challenges and distractions of college life. He shares some of his experiences from the novel in “Volume I” of Should We All Wear Hats? and continues with a current day perspective in “Volume II.” Like us, Adam learns about life through reading and personal experiences. Some of life’s gifts are obvious treasures while other discoveries can be more troublesome: a kiss, a poem. In his journal, Adam says that poetry is a slice of life that doesn’t conform to expectations. He might even assert the transitive property of equality and claim that since poetry is life and kisses make life worth living, then a poem itself must be a kiss. Indeed it is a kiss that sparks the poem which begins our story—such an alluring muse must but part her lips to fill a page with song: “a second drawn from endless spool.”

Though born from perfect lips, poetry falls naked and imperfect. It pales. it hides in shadow as a flawed translation of a once brilliant vision, an unconscious and wondrous dream which fades oh so quickly as we are pulled unwillingly from sweet embrace and laid bare against the cold, harsh light of day. So we look away and seek our little distractions.

As an addict-poet, Adam calls out each night for another kiss. He begs to dream of her again, but his muse is allusive; he must find another song to fill his heart. As he awaits her next visit, Adam discovers that life is doled out in coffee spoons—something that likely percolated out of an old T. S. Eliot poem. And although those spoonfuls might never lead to asking his overwhelming question, Adam now fully appreciates the importance of connection and how a simple misunderstanding can shape a life. (J. D. Salinger wrote like two hundred pages about that predicament.)

So why do we have to wait so long for what we want most? Oh, how hard it is to be patient, especially given today’s technology. We expect so many things in our lives to happen instantaneously: a second seems an eternity when we live our lives as a series of video clips. Social media gives us a lens to observe a myriad of behaviors that we don’t condone; we feel hate hundreds, if not thousands of times every day. Our world seems more divided than ever before. Half of the world hates half of the world. Do we even remember that we choose how we spend our time, that we choose how we react? Tonight, will you soak up the sunset or absorb more of the web’s hate-provoking jabs?

We need more; we deserve more. This is our time: our time to take a stand, to plant the seed of hope that will feed a future generation. All we need is a rallying point to pull ourselves from this nightmare. What can we do? Should we all wear hats? Yes, let’s all wear hats and spread a new message of love! Let’s make poetry an official distraction!

E. C. Flickinger

Caution: This book contains poetry and may fit snugly into your pocket. Please use responsibly.