…the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
“Time” – Pink Floyd
2/4/25: Reread this and for the most part it holds up, but there is one part I’ve slightly altered my thinking about. Time (heh), and a bit of distance, have a way of making one see things a lot more clearly.
First off… What a great freaking song.
Significant events and the passage of time. Think I’ll break these up a bit. Don’t mind me.
Significant life events:
I believe that we have the ability to choose how significant life events influence us.
I think the default for most of us is the negative setting. Probably stemming all the way back to the cavemen when you didn’t know if you and your tribe were going to wake up and be invited to some dinosaur’s lunch buffet…
As the main course.
Obviously, the happy times in life typically influence us positively. Wedding, birth of a child, big promotion, etc.
It’s the more negative ones that can be a tricky bastard. These are the times I feel we need to make the conscious choice how we let it influence us.
When I lost my job, of course, I was upset and angry. Mad at myself, the company and certain co-workers. It’s natural and I’m human. But I consciously chose to frame it differently. This was a chance to learn and grow, rest and recover my health, meet new people and try new things.
And you know what? It works. I feel better than I have in at least 6 months, I am attending courses and looking into getting a degree for the first time in my life, I’ve met new people (both online and off), and am looking at opportunities I’d never even entertained before.
May have changed my mindset on some of the above a bit in the past year. A post for another day, perhaps…
When my wife died after a very long health struggle, I chose to do the same.
Why? Because she loved me and she would have been disappointed in me if I curled up in a ball and gave up on life. And I am the only remaining parent for our beautiful child. That right there trumps everything else.
But even with that, I had to make a conscious choice to move forward and be better. The default is to want to chuck it all away and be done with it.
Pardon my candor, but fuck that notion. I have gone through way too much and am far too deserving of a good life to just toss it all on the scrap heap. I am willing to wager I could say the same about you reading this right now.
Whatever the situation you are in, find the upside. Find the blessing. Use it as fuel and push your ass forward. No matter what. You totally deserve it.
Time:
Almost everyone I talk to laments the passage of time. Laments the passage of time, or pines for the good old days.
I drift the other way, oddly enough. I tend to not think too much about past shit once it’s come and gone. Sure, I might reminisce, or tell a story, but I sure don’t like living there. I’ve carried enough crap around: it’s time for forward motion, damn it.
And everyone laments the passage of time, getting older, blah, blah, blah.
I think the old adage is true: You are only as old as you feel.
Yeah, I’ve got more than my fair share of mileage on me, but I’ll be damned if I am going to go out hunched over like some tired old bastard.
Sure, my neck is a little trashed and my back is tweaked, but so what? I’m still doing what I can when I can. Making allowances where I have to, but still working out, getting stuff done, etc.
And as far as mindset goes, why the hell you think I post goofy crap like Superhero Saturdays, read comics, play video games and watch sci-fi? I’m having fun with it. Am I an overgrown kid? Probably. But I don’t really give a rat’s rosy red ass what someone else thinks of it.
Terminator Gorilla, anyone?
Look, the world around us is trash. It’s up to each of us as individuals to have fun, do good things and respect your fellow men and women. Who cares what’s come and gone, what year it is, or whatever? Time is irrelevant if you’re having fun with it and trying to do good.
If that isn’t enough to keep you healthy, young and vital, then I don’t know what the hell is.
And now, as is my wont, I leave you with this:
The Beginning At Last 
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