Tedy introduced me to a university puzzle competition a few days ago and I am currently going bonkers trying to figure them out. I thought I was good at puzzles, but obviously I’m not because I can’t even solve one. That’s ok, I really needed a large dose of humility. I’ve been trying to work on my writing of late, in between puzzles, and have largely been enjoying it. My play ‘Finding God’ is coming along well and I hope to finish it within a week or so.
I’ve also been boxing quite regularly, so as to keep my fists of fury in place. I long for the old days. I can remember a time when I was in school. I was in uni. Different times, but the same thing was present: six pack, bulging muscles, respectable weight, comments that I looked good. Now, all I’ve got are memories. Not for long.
I see it like this. I’ve been struggling through a period in history. I harken back to the Golden Age, and see the present situation as the Dark Ages. I feel it is the perfect time for the Renaissance to enter and bring back that chiseled body. But it’s more than the body. It can start with the body. Even though it’s not all about the body, the body will be the first thing. I’m not saying that I’m concentrating on the body side of things. The body will come first.
Taking a slightly pessimistic view of the future, I have lived a quarter of my life. I am supposing that great breakthroughs in medicine will stall for many more years. I hope that they don’t, but change is often slow. So what I’m saying is that I’ll live to a hundred naturally if I’m lucky, more if I get a lucky break with medicine. My life is a quarter over. So if I was watching it as a football game, I’d be over the initial excitement and be ready to see all the main action starting very soon. So that’s where I’m at. There will be action.
I wonder sometimes about strange things. I was thinking about how we worry about people when they die early. We say, “what a waste that they didn’t get to live out their life”. But then I think, what does it matter? They can’t worry about it. They’re dead. Maybe the second before they died and knew that they were dying they thought, “oh shit, I really wanted to swim with dolphins” but then after that they don’t have any worries. So I wonder what it is a waste of. I see it as being a problem for the living people. Family, friends will all miss that person, but the person doesn’t miss them. I guess that just highlights the joke of it all: We live life all these years trying to survive, cheating death, staying healthy, running, swimming, getting fit, building muscle, making friends, making money, making it on time, making out, doing the right thing, doing the wrong thing, making mistakes, still trying not to die, finally clinging to life support, trying desperately not to die, but then in the end we lose and die…….AND THEN? Do we get to keep anything? No. As the Monty Python boys said “Lifes the laugh and death’s the joke”. Even if you believe in going to heaven, you gotta realize that the longer you stay on Earth the more chance you have of sinning. So really, clinging on to life doesn’t seem all that worthwhile. And even when you get there, you’re going to miss all of the people still alive.
So I realize that the time now, at 25 until I hit that 50 mark had better be DAMN GOOD and memorable, cos it’s all downhill after that.
And now, I have a special story that I found in one of those mass-emails that one gets from time to time. Learn this lesson!
The Donkey
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked fown the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
And what happened to the donkey? Well he later came back and bit the shit out of the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected, and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.
MORAL FROM TODAY’S LESSON:
When you do something wrong and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.
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