Quotidian Thinking

My family rarely said anything original,
that was both insightful and good, 
to prepare my sister and I for adult life.
But maybe they unknowingly excelled
to prepare me early for the jaded life
of a retiree when, as we talked about
how serious problems were solved
by agreement more than disagreement,
we used to say 'Great minds think alike.'
to which Mother always replied
'And mediocre minds seldom differ.'.

Her glass-half-empty thinking,
drained even of the energy of cynicism,
was how she normalised the loss of hope.

I wanted to be an optimist.
Now I am older than four of the five
British Prime Ministers since 2010.
Like my mother I find that they have
had far too few ideas between them
for them to be seen as even mediocre.