What’s Dead Can Never Die

They say that age is relative and that some young people live more in a short time than people who are decades older experience during their lives.

That may or may not be true and it is possible that some of those who are younger could teach me a thing or two I might also teach them what they need to know about timing.

Chances are if I was able to put my entire life on a DVD and rewind it back a chunk of years you and I would see a twenty-something year-old man who was certain he knew far more than he deserved credit for.

You and I might call it naivete or ignorance based upon youth and lack of experience, but not across the board because that kid had lived and loved enough to know a few things.

But he would have been intolerant and disdainful of anyone who tried to point out how much he didn’t know because of age.

He would have said it was a cheap way to try and end a conversation, but that is a topic of for a different time.

The Simple Life

A while back a reader told me they miss the days when I spent more time focused on telling a story and less upon sharing thoughts.

They said they preferred something that was more organized, you know the kind of tale that has a clear beginning, middle and ending.

I understand and appreciate that because it is a simpler way to go and if I had my choice I’d make much of my life simpler than it has been and is.

But life doesn’t always cooperate with our desires and much of it is spent making choices that are based upon things that happened and not stuff we make happen.

We are forever standing upon the seesaw of our personal world sliding between reactive and proactive.

BTW, you missed your cue to start singing the theme to Green Acres and imagining a simple life in the country but that is ok, unless you are a tree you aren’t rooted to one place.

You can pick your ass up and move. Some of us have done it multiple times and are still doing it.

What’s Dead Can Never Die

I am not certain if that line came to mind because I have of my familiarity with Game of Thrones (I have read all the books more than once and watch the show) or if it is something else.

But I liked it because it ties in with the linkup I decided to participate in this week and because it is a contradiction.

That is what life is to me, contradictions layered in moments where you remember that Twain was right that truth is stranger than fiction.

Moments where you see the cliche about the low raised high and the high taken from their thrones.

As I sit here writing I am listening to Google Music play one of their auto mixes and both Prince and David Bowie have serenaded me..

Two men who entertained millions of people, who made an impact upon the world and earned millions of dollars but who died too soon.

That last line isn’t me making a value judgment it is me saying that most people would agree that 57 and 69 are not considered to be particularly old.

Two men who in theory had the resources to obtain the best medical care who had enough cash to live lives where they could be proactive and not reactive are gone.

But if you look at the subhead about what’s dead can never die you could say that because of their music and the influence they had there they aren’t really gone because people like you and I will keep playing their songs.

Still it is interesting to think about how many people who don’t have the same resources and advantages will live many years longer than those two.

You just never know.

Entertain, Educate & Inform

If that reader who wanted me to spend more time telling simple stories were to drop out of the sky into my bedroom and ask me to explain myself I would do so.

But first I would repair the whole in the ceiling and ask how the hell he managed to fall out of the sky and through my roof.

And then I would ask him to tell me about his workout routine because a man who can do that is onto something.

****

Every post I write is supposed to entertain, educate and inform but I never expect everyone to feel that way nor do I try to make everyone happy.

That is a good way to write sterile crap that has no heart and no soul, the kind of vanilla writing that puts a writer to sleep.

A man who would dress up in face paint to sacrifice a pinata would never go that route. Ok, that is not me in the picture, but it could be.

So let’s get to the heart of the matter and touch upon some more important stuff.

I love that quote more than I can tell you because that is what life has taught me to embrace.

The day I was born (re-born) isn’t limited to one single moment or time and I am not sure that I could limit it to less than ten critical experiences or that I need to.

We could talk about high school/college graduations, getting married, becoming a father or the day I found out my father was on life support.

You could add buying/selling my house, moving out of state and back and a couple of moments besides.

Hell, if you have to pick one moment I’d say go back more than a decade to when I joined the blogging game because it reignited the fire inside.

It led me back to the path of writing and storytelling and reminded me that I know what I am supposed to do with my life.

I may not have all of the details and specifics worked out but I have the framework and that is enough for me to have decided to follow my own Yellow Brick road.

Doesn’t matter whether anyone else can see it or if it is on land or sea or day or night.

That moment flipped the switch and I will see it through.

*****

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post and the sentence is “The day I was born (re-born) was….”