Category: Just sayin’

Pep talk

Enough with the woe-is-me not-Monday-again pity party. What a weekend that was, to rest and recharge and cheer on the team, and now here’s Monday waiting for you to take it on.

Your mission is to stare Monday in the eye and say, “Show me what you’ve got,” and when it hits you with all it has, smile and say, “Is that all?”

You can droop your shoulders and say, “Oh, it’s Monday,” or you can square your shoulders and say, “Oh! It’s Monday!”

If you live for Friday, no worries. It’s waiting for you on the other side of the week, and it’ll be that much sweeter if you give it all you’ve got between now and then.

The song says, “Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day.” But you don’t have to trust the day. Trust yourself and make it real.

We just disagree, except we don’t

I may believe in church and community food pantries, and you may believe in government-issued food stamps, but we both believe in feeding people who can’t afford a decent meal.

I may believe in schools at home or funded by voluntary donations, and you may believe in  government-funded education, but we both believe in teaching our children what they need to know.

I may believe government is an instrument of force that needs to be limited in its powers, and you may believe government is a tool that should be utilized for all kinds of services and regulations, but we both believe necessary services must be provided somehow. 

We are bombarded every day with messages intended to foment mistrust and hate against our neighbors. I’m here to tell you those messages are lies that suppress the fact that we agree on a common mission, which is to love our neighbors.

Real life vs. real life

In a blog post called “One Morning, Two Realities,” Toirdhealbheach Beucail (whose name I must someday learn how to pronounce) writes about the contrast between the life that greets him when he awakes — the dog and his other pets, his family, his home — and the life that assaults him when he flips the switch and lets the outer world invade.

I call the morning news “The OMG Report.” The TV personalities seek out the most alarming and aberrant behavior they can find and hurl it in our faces in what feels like a deliberate attempt to disrupt our calm and fuel our fear and rage.

“The sky is falling!” shouts the expert or the petty tyrant on the screen. “A piece of it struck me in the head! You’re next!” (Do they tell children the story of Chicken Little anymore?)

TB considers that the life he first encounters in the morning, the one with the charming dependent animals, his morning read, and the human loves of his life, “are far more of life than ‘real life’ seems to be. Absolutely. “The OMG Report” is a bit of nervous entertainment, akin to a horror movie or roller coaster, and the reality we wake up to is more like an epic romantic poem, more challenging to get through, perhaps, but full of real nourishment.

Equinox opportunities

Here around the 45th parallel, the high temperatures are expected to drop into the upper 50s today after a high in the mid to upper 70s on Wednesday, the last full day of summer. 

The autumnal equinox is supposed to occur right after 8 p.m. tonight in this neck of the woods, and for the next six months the days will be shorter than the nights, barely noticeable at first and then darker as we approach winter. The only good news about the first day of winter is that the days start regaining a few minutes back daily even as the cold gets colder.

I am a big fan of summer, but I’m fond of fall and spring, too. Autumn is OK because the hot and muggy days of summer are behind us, but the cool weather is not yet bone-chilling, and spring is OK because the bone-chilling is behind us and the green comes easing back. It’s only in winter that I wish my modest book sales would start sprouting extra zeros so we could buy that second home somewhere where freezing weather is just something you read about or see on TV.

For now, though, here we sit on the cusp between seasons, a cold front ushering summer out the door rather brusquely if I say so myself. The switch is not usually quite so dramatic, but what are ya gonna do, it is what it is, and a dozen more cliches that people use when they’re making small talk about the weather.

So here we are entering autumn, and who knows what happens next? The only thing that’s certain is the green leaves will turn to brown, we might get a few inches of snow by the end of the year, and life goes on. That’s something.

Life and meaning

I hope to write something profound, or funny, or moving, or otherwise special, every time I sit down and touch the pen to paper. A person wants to believe their life has meant something.

Of course our lives have meaning, because our life touches other people’s life life all the time. We choose whether it’s a gentle touch or a battering ram. 

I suggest gentle. What is the point of bringing more violence and pain into the world?

Life is such a precious and fragile thing. Respect and honor life, and preserve it when you can.

And Now

Tomorrow is approaching — or is it?

It’s always now, isn’t it?

We plan for tomorrow — or fail to —

and we comb over yesterday

with fondness or regret, but meanwhile

Now is in progress, 

Now is happening,

Now is all we have.

It behooves us to pay attention now, 

to look around now,

and see what there is to be seen,

to find what needs to be done and do it,

Now.  

While we were busy making plans

The ancient scientist who cured a dozen deadly diseases sighed and said, “All I really wanted to be was a rock star poet.”

The celebrated author with 30 novels, a couple of popular movie and TV series, and a master class thousands had attended, said, “I was really good at science; what if I was put on this earth to cure cancer?”

The old man who never retired said, “I wish I’d saved my money when I was young so that I didn’t need to go to work now.”

The old man who grew rich, retired at 55 and traveled the world 10 times over said, “I miss work.”

The If Onlys creep up and seize an unsuspecting mind, leaving regret and imagined alternate realities in their wake. 

“If only I had done this one thing differently, things would be different.”

“What would have happened if that thing had happened one minute earlier, or 10 seconds later?”

Its fun to speculate, unless it isn’t and a pile of regret lands on your head.

They say life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. It doesn’t turn out the way you imagined, and imagination always, always painted a prettier picture.

It always, always turns out differently, for better or for worse. And the wishing you could go back and change things? That way lies madness.

This is the life you have lived and are living, ups and downs and sideways and forward and backward and all. Say what you will, but it’s been quite a ride, hasn’t it?