The Diner and Mr. Stone

I do the same thing every day

I wake up and go to work
And I don't look forward to anything
I don't anticipate things getting better
I hold on
That's all I do
Is hold on

Because when you've seen things get worse
And worse, and worse
And you find yourself still breathing
After the worst of the worst
You don't say--

Well, let's redefine
Let's transform
Let's reinvent

No

You say, 'Thank God I'm still going'
And you run faster
If you can

At some point in history
In everybody's own personal history
The younger generation decides
It's okay for them to take stock

To look at the people who've raised them
Who've brought them up
And say--Let's look at what you've done
Let's look at your choices
Let's see how fast you ran
And let's ask whether or not
You could have run faster

I've been around long enough now
That's it pecking time

It's time for others
To take stock of me

To look down on thirty years
Of me running this place
And talk about my food
And my methods
And my challenges
And tell me what's what

Well, let me tell you this

I've never seen a ladder so tall
It could give a child the perspective necessary
To look down on their parents

You find that ladder
You let me know

But until then, this is my place
This is how I do things
This is my history

You don't get to pick it up
And look at it eight different ways
And come up with a conclusion
About what it is or was

History isn't something you can look at it

It's something you gotta live through

Walk through

Run, if you can

Remember that

If you can

All anything anybody worth their salt has done in this world
Is what they can
What they can do

Your generation is the first one
That isn't interested
In doing what it can
Doing all it can

You're not the first flawed group of children
But you sure are the laziest

Because you'd rather sit up on an invisible ladder
Than get down in the mud
And get
To
Work

I'm standing here right now
Thinking about all the things I could have been doing
While I've been wasting my time
Talking to you

I'm either working at the diner
Or thinking about working at the diner
Or dreaming about it
Or worrying about it
Or wondering if I could have working at something else

But never
Not for a moment
Am I doing nothing
And that's what questioning someone else's past is

Doing a whole lot of nothing

That's what I think

And that should tell you all you need to know
About me