I've taken a couple of days off to rejuvenate. Never fear. I am not getting lazy or throwing in the towel. I love the word rejuvenate. Roughly translated, it means to be young again. Would that we could all do that. I remember when I was in my twenties that someone asked my boss, who was in his fifties, what was the best time of his life. "Right now," he responded quickly. I believe he meant it.
Well into my fifties, I am not sure I can echo that sentiment. There are certainly things about me that are very different from a quarter century ago. I am infinitely wiser and much more appreciative of knowledge than I was in my twenties and thirties, and my work ethic has vastly improved. Sadly, my life situation doesn't allow for the possibilities I had back then. I was single until I was 32, and while I didn't piddle away those years, I could have done so much more with today's wisdom. I fully understand the sentiment of the talented and quotable George Bernard Shaw when he penned, "Youth is wasted on the young."
Remember those dreams you had when you were ten or so of how your life would turn out? How few of us realized those dreams. I doubt you dreamed being an accountant, an office manager, a real estate agent, or a car sales person. I can't tell you the countless times I've heard an interview with a celebrity or pro athlete who said, "I always knew I was going to be a star." What they don't understand is that for every one of them there are thousands who also thought they were going to be stars, but for one reason or another wound up on a different path.
If you think about it, those dreams set us up for an unhappy life. When you're a kid and you don't get what you want--candy, cookies, a new football, Malibu Barbie--you're naturally dissappointed. How much more magnified is that dissappointment when the desire is stretched over years and the failure is stretched over an even longer period.
So what is the point then? How can we expect to lead a happy life when our hopes are dashed so early and so permanently? Well, let's consider the obvious flaw in my logic that presumes career is the only thing that leads to a happy life. The things we didn't envision in our childhood were the little triumphs that would add to sometimes only fleeting moments of happiness, but happiness nonetheless. If I counted the major triumphs in my life, they are far outweighed by flops, failures and outright disasters.
That's why I've learned to savor the small triumphs. There are so many more of them and your imagination affords you the luxury of turning them into major triumphs. Happily ever after is the line we are fed by virtually every fairy tale we are read in our youth. A more appropriate and realistic ending might be: And they both lived extremely normal, mundane lives while experiencing brief moments of happiness from time to time. Now there's an expectation I can live up to.
Incidentally, my checkbook went AWOL yesterday for about 16 hours. My daughter found it underneath one of the couch cushions, after an exhaustive search by both of us. It's going to be a good day.
You did alright with your life. It's just that creative people can't take the mundane. You could and should be performing. If I had a private jet I would fly you in to MC my show. I do agree youth is wasted on the young. There will always be moments of happiness, sadness, boredom, reflection but there is always life to be lived as long as you are alive. Savior those triumphs and keep going for more at any age.
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