“no drug… causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” P. J. O’Rourke, journalist, satirist
Time is short and we never know how much of it we have left, which is why we shouldn’t put things off. Waiting, is simply spending the time you have doing other things until you feel you can do whatever it is that you want.
It’s funny how we simply take today and tomorrow for granted. We act as if they are givens, when they are not. Our brains just block out the fact that nothing is certain and anything can happen. The other day I saw a car accident and thought…I’m sure the people involved never though their day would turn out like that. Who knows how badly anyone was injured, and whether it would change their lives forever.
It can’t be any other way, of course. We can’t think about everything that could possibly happen, or we wouldn’t be able to function. Part of being alive is taking risks and just pushing things as far as we can. It’s fun. We don’t think about what could happen, we just live. But, sometimes things only come around once and if you wait, you never get the same chance again. Sometimes there isn’t a better time to do something.
I’ve always done what I wanted to do because even as a kid I knew I could die and then I wouldn’t have done what ever it was I wanted to do. I do what I want to do right away and I’ve never once been sorry. Living that way isn’t for everyone, of course, some people like to have five year plans and wait until they think they’ll have more money, or a better job, or be with a different person. But all of those things may never happen and then they have simply spent their lives waiting.
Waiting is a crazy thing. People wait for love, for the right time, for the right everything, as if time will bring what they want to them. I don’t think life works that way. I think life is NOW, in your face and saying, “Look, you crazy person, I’m offering this to you NOW, if you say no, you’ll never see it again.”
Second chances are rare, if you ask me. Besides, I don’t like waiting. I wait as little as possible. Waiting is strange. Some of the things people wait for don’t even exist and many things are ethereal or smoke dreams. Meanwhile, while they are waiting, life is moving on and leaving them standing in line. I’m more of a do it right this second kind of person. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just the way some people are. I never count on second chances, or a future. If I want to do something, I do it. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me. I have no regrets because I never didn’t do what I wanted to do, so how could regret anything, even if it didn’t turn out the way I expected it to?
You know what it’s like…it’s like people who see something they want but don’t allow themselves to have it. Then they go home and think about whatever it was. The argue with themselves about getting it, or just forgetting about it, and finally…they decide they have to have it. So, they go back to the shop, only to find the thing they wanted is already gone. Now the person really wants it. He’s disappointed. He might not forget about that thing for the rest of his life but remember it, and even tell others about it. That’s regret for not acting when the moment appeared.
That’s what life is like. It’s all there, right in front of us, ours for the taking. But it changes and if you don’t get what you want right away, it can be lost forever. And sure, sometimes we all jump at things and find out that whatever it is, was not the right thing, But that’s what risk and chances are all about. Will mistakes be made? I don’t see how they can’t be but that’s better than waiting and never getting what you want.
Kids are like that too and parents make decisions for them, when they should let kids make decisions for themselves, even if adults can see how things will turn out. That’s the only way to learn. Let kids decide little things. When what they decide doesn’t turn out the way they expected, parents can make them realize that not everything does turn out the way we expect it to, but that’s okay. We just have to keep trying. If they don’t get that kind of information, they can grow into adults who are afraid to make choices for fear of being wrong.
We make life harder than it has to be. Mistakes are not failures. There are no failures, just things that turned out differently than we expected. Life often turns out differently than we expected on a daily basis. So what. If you don’t get what you want now, you may never get what you want. This particular life isn’t forever…have fun now, while you can, so you never have to look back and say, “Why didn’t I do that when I had the chance? What was I waiting for?”
“Hello,” said the girl, getting off her tricycle.
“Hello.”
“You’re really big for a turtle?”
“Am I?”
“Yes, you are,” she said.
“What’s a turtle?” he asked.
“You’re a turtle, aren’t you?”
“What does a turtle look like?”
“Turtles look like you.”
“I don’t think that’s what I am,” he said.
“Well,” said the girl. “Then what are you?”
“I’m me. Aren’t you, you?”
“Yes, I guess so,” she answered. “But I’m also a girl and a child and a homo safety pin. I’m a student and a daughter and a granddaughter, a cousin, and a friend.”
“I see,” he said. “That’s a lot of things for one to be.”
She nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
“I’m just me. I’m sorry you can’t just be you.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m used to it, I guess. We have names, too. Do you have a name?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “What would it be?”
“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “What names do you call each other?”
“Each other?”
“Yes. What do you call those who are like you?”
“I don’t know anyone like me.”
“I see,” she said, frowning.
“Do you have a name?”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. “Everyone has a name, well, everyone like me, I mean. My name is Rosy.”
“Perhaps you could give me a name, Rosy.’
“I would like that,” she said, excitedly.
“Tell me when you think of one.”
“I will,” she whispered, closing her eyes.
“I’ll just wait right here,” he said, taking bites of grass.
She sighed and began pacing.
“Names must be hard,” he said, watching her.
“They have to be just right,” she said, finally looking at him.
“Maybe you can call me Rosy, too.”
She laughed. That’s my name.”
“Are you the only one who has it?” he asked.
“No. I’m sure there are a lot of other who have it.”
“Well then, why can’t you give it to me?”
“Is that what you’d like?”
“I think it is.”
“Then you can have it,” she said, happily. “We can be the two Rosy’s.”
And that’s how the two Rosy’s came to be, on a warm summer day in a magical field, that no one else knew about. You see, magic is everywhere, and you never know when you’ll walk right into it and meet a new friend who, if your lucky, isn’t really anyone but himself.
If you want to touch the moon find a mountain and climb it during the day bring a book water food and cookies for the moon then wait until it’s dark once night has fallen stand on your tiptoes put your arm up as high as you can and REACH call her name and stretch […]
via Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Georgiann Carlson — Brave & Reckless
We have a lot of questions to which we have no answers. We don’t have a clue as to what’s actually going on. Plus, I think the important question is, WHAT are we? If we had the answers to all or even some of our questions, we might kill ourselves, to get away from here as fast as possible, but that’s just a guess. The opposite could also be true.
Life is about two major things: Maintenance and repetitive motion. We have to take care of everything…roads, bridges, houses, well, EVERYTHING, unless we want Nature to take over and strangle us, move into our buildings and bring her birds and raccoons with Her.
And EVERYTHING we do is just one repetitive motion after another. We sleep, get up, most of us brush our teeth, and the rest of our day can often be too much like the day before, and the one we expect to have tomorrow. Then we have bursts of independence, where we can stay off the hamster wheel for a day or two, although we still have our “routine,” maintaining our bodies, like eating, dressing, etc. If we think about it, are kept on a pretty tight leash and fall apart quickly, and sometimes painfully, if we falter. In fact, if you live in Chicago in January and you don’t have a coat, or heat, you can die. All part of maintenance.
We think we have a lot of choices, and we do, it’s just that all the choices lead to the same place. That’s what life is. All of our choices pretty much have to do with those two things…maintenance and repetition. We keep it interesting by jumping out of airplanes, or climbing mountains where we could be caught in a storm and die, but at least that’s different than the days we’ve already had. We travel, we learn things, we do as much as we can, to break up the repetitiveness of life until it’s over. Sure, it can be fun, but we don’t know anything else, so we can’t compare what we do, with anything else. Even people who party, do the same thing all the time. Face it, there’s only so much we can do, in so many different ways.
Living on earth is CONTAINED living. Our cage is bigger than that of guinea pig but it’s still a cage. And it all takes planning, and getting, and doing, to go anywhere. It’s not like we’re actually monkeys who decide to move and just get up and swing to a new tree. Everything we do takes effort and planning. But that’s the way it is, there’s no other way to do things. It’s just that, for the majority of people, that stuff takes up most of their lives.
Then we add the layer of how we look and what we wear and all the social stuff and what’s in and what’s out. Monkeys don’t think about those things. Neither do chipmunks or rabbits. No baggage. No going to the store, or washing floors, or taking the car in to get fixed, no losing weight, doing laundry, or going to the dentist, for any of them. Of course, someone is always trying to kill them and have them for dinner, but that’s the way it is for humans as well, just without the dinner part. Most of the time.
We make up wars and our kids kill someone else’s kids, or vice versa, and the ugly powerful men who get rich, don’t care who dies as long as they make a profit. We kill and poison everything on the planet and a few people moan and then continue with their repetitive motions.
Some people just sit and watch TV. Some do it because they’re exhausted from living their lives, others because they have given up. Still others, because television has become their lives. We all try and find a way to cope until it’s over.
A lot of us are addicted to “new and exciting things.” Addiction is something we all share, no matter what it is…books, pasta, wine, gum, shoes, TV, music, chocolate, alcohol, smoking, sex, kids, animals, our jobs, surfing, whatever. Those things help pass the time and give us reasons to keep going. Those things can make us happy to be alive. But here’s the thing, everything we do, no matter how important and brilliant, is only for the moment.
We are conditioned to concentrate on the things that are meaningless, even dull and boring, so that we don’t confront the liars who are bleeding us dry and destroying our resources, and lives. The same greedy guys who are forcing people into poverty and misery. Instead of working together to make the earth (our cage) as nice as it can be, we allow it to be turned into a garbage dump and kill everything we need to survive while we wonder how to lose 5 more pounds or get a new car. Schools do not teach us to look at the big picture but to look at small individual things, so we never really learn how to work together effectively to over throw the government, or anything else.
Maybe, earth is an institution housing mentally deranged prisoners. You know like those people who run around screaming that they’re the Queen, or Albert Einstein. What’s with the Queen anyway? Why do we have people like that? Presidents and Queens…they are all just regular people, except they are isolated from reality and think they’re Albert Einstein. People have to be given instruction on how to act when they meet the Queen. Why? Does she frighten easily? Doesn’t she know how to act around other people? If someone told me I had to bow from the waist, and do other things, I’d walk away, like anyone who can think, should. Why do people treat people with a label as if they are special, when they aren’t? It’s sad that the Queen can’t meet a person without prior instruction. Maybe people should be afraid of her. What if someone said hello the wrong way? Would she attack? Have her guards attack? How crazy IS she?
But I digress…
Art and creativity, writing, photography, dancing, etc., are fabulous ways to get through life, in my opinion. I’m addicted to them, as well to as books, chocolate and cats, and a few other things. Some people can’t do enough gardening, or biking, or running, or whatever thing puts them in the ZONE.
The ZONE is a good place because it gets us away from here/daily life, from the mundane . In the ZONE there is no time, no outside, there’s just thought and most of the time, there’s action. You can get there in a million different ways. You don’t need to meditate, siting cross-legged on a cushion, or a hard floor, destroying your knees, you can get into the ZONE by doing what you love to do. It’s nice there.
But realistically, we are virtually prisoners on this planet. There is no escape, no where to go, no way to make a break for freedom. This is it, at least at this moment. When the sun gets big enough to warm the gas planets we might be living on one of their moons but if reincarnation is real, some people will have been back a million/billion times by then.
Oh, one more thing…some people believe, “you aren’t given more than you can carry,” or something like that. That saying makes absolutely no sense and the proof is in that FACT, that the suicide rate is extremely high. The suicide rate is high, because people can’t deal with the stuff they are expected to carry. Why don’t people think about WHAT THEY ARE SAYING,” before they say it? Not only are people constantly killing themselves, the one’s who stick around, drink and drug themselves into oblivion, which is often just a slower way to kill one’s self. So, IN REALITY, a lot of people have more than they can carry. A lot of people think their day is a success if they were able to get out of bed in the morning.
We don’t know what we are, who we are, what this place is, or why we ended up here. We don’t know what comes next. Period. Everything you think you know has been made up by and for the benefit of others. That’s the way it is…for real. It’s only the things people have been conditioned to believe that stop them from being able to see that.
“I’m begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children’s children, and generations yet unborn we’ve got to guard this moment… This is our watch.” source: The Guardian Elijah Cummings. US Congressman
Rethinking Life 
Written
on July 31, 2019