What four lessons about life is poet Roger McGough trying to teach in his poem "The Way Things Are"?

One view of "what four lessons about life" poet Roger
McGough is teaching in his amusing and ironic poem "The Way Things Are" is that he is
teaching lessons about life, time, reality, and wisdom. McGough's wonderful ironic tone
("Pebbles work best without batteries. / The deckchair will fail as a unit of
currency.") develops with a masterly hand the image of a caring and loving father
explaining to a small child the mysteries and intricacies of life and living ("Even
though your shadow is shortening / it does not mean you are growing smaller.") While
finding four lessons amidst the symbolic charming and ironic examples ("When the sky is
looking the other way, / do not enter the forest.") may be a bit of a challenge, I can
suggest the following.

McGough intends to teach about age
and the frailty of life. This is shown in his references, for example, to old people
walking slowly, to candles crying, and to the "last goodbye." In these brilliantly
contrived references, he is showing that life deteriorates along the way, that life does
have pain, and that the last goodbye may be permanent instead of an au
revoir, until we see each other again.

McGough
also intends to teach about time and history:

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For centuries the bullet remained quietly
confident
that the gun would be invented.
A drowning surrealist will
not appreciate
the concrete
lifebelt.

Along with the
above topics, he explains that old people don't, in fact, have lots of time and that
what is of value today (craft fair), with time, may be valueless tomorrow, just as
activities "pall" (loose the pleasure) over time ("The thrill of being a shower curtain
will soon pall.")

The two biggest lessons taught are that
of science and reality as well as safety and wisdom. McGough addresses science, for
example, in mentioning what is not the cause of wind, the propulsion potential of a
lighthouse, and the ephemeral nature of moonlight. He addresses reality by declaring the
opposition of a surrealist to that which is concrete, the ineffectiveness of bubblegum
on hair, and that the exercise of great responsibility leaves scars over
time.

Personal safety and wisdom actually seem to get the
greatest attention from McGough. He admonishes, for example, against becoming a jailer
unless one is very wise; that losing a glove is the same as losing a pair, which can be
read as a metaphor for other things like relationships; and that there is no "trusting
hand" to catch a "falling star." He ends by apologizing that this is the way things
are.