The Simple Complications

The Warriors are playing the Cavaliers on the television set in front of me but I am not paying much attention to the game.

There are people who are important to me rooting for both sides and if I were to announce I prefer one over the other they might be upset.

Truth is I don’t particularly care who wins because I will always be a Lakers fan above all others.

But I appreciate watching superstars play and know guys like LeBron and Durant can do things others can’t so periodically I raise my eyes from the screen to watch.

I’ll never be as good as they are but it doesn’t mean I can’t learn a trick or two from them or that I won’t try to add to my game.

If you are not getting better you are getting worse.

The Simple Complications

Halftime comes and I turn on iTunes and take time to see if American Pie moves me to write a different story than the one I have started here.

Something about the day the music died reminds me of those quotes floating around online about how if you don’t like the way you are current story is being told you can always start a new one.

I understand that in ways I never could have done when I was younger and had less life experience.

It makes me think about the past 20 years and things I would done differently during that time.

There is a list of choices I made that I wouldn’t make again, moments in time that I would relive because they were awful or awesome.

And an understanding that we can’t go back, we can only go forward and the realization that sometimes you can’t move forward without looking back.

Because sometimes the past is what prevents you from taking the steps you want to take to move into the future you want to live.

Sometimes it is as simple as saying you forgive another and sometimes you can’t.

That has to be among the most simple and yet most complicated part of life.

It is definitely tied into why I moved to Texas. I was done with the story I was living in LA and the idea of staying there was choking the life out of me.

Had to go, had to start over on some things and begin building something new.

A Fish Out Of Water

Everything feels slightly off to me right now.

It is a mix of exciting and disconcerting but I have grown accustomed to walking upon the razor’s edge and dancing in the fire.

I have gotten used to people telling me they are frustrated with some of my choices and explaining to them why I don’t owe them an explanation.

It is almost always their problem and not mine, but that is life for many of us.

So much of the advice we are given is really nothing more than hearing what the other person(s) likes or doesn’t like. Very little seems rooted in what our best interests are.

It is a point I try to remind myself, especially as a father because the goal isn’t to churn out clones of myself.

Fortunately my teen and preteen are always ready to remind me. 😉

 

I have used that quote in three different conversations this week.

Each one of them was with a different person and yet each time it felt like it was the simplest way to try and express something complicated in easy terms.

Or maybe what I should really be saying is that I find our ability to complicate the simple endlessly interesting.

Part of the joy of the journey is knowing that every time I think I have figured it all out life will find a way to demonstrate I haven’t.

And yet each time I run into one of those moments I know that if I keep pressing forward I’ll find my way out again.

This is where I sometimes wonder about social media and how easily a text based society finds way to create chaos and confusion.

Status updates, memes, pictures and tweets won’t ever replace the simplicity and effectiveness of face-to-face communication.

And if I can’t rely upon that, well a good telephone call goes a long way too, but given the choice I’ll almost always pick face-to-face, at least for the important people.

That has been one of the best parts of the last few days, that face-to-face has made it so much easier to understand what is going on with a couple of people.

 

Sometimes the most important thing we can do for another is to make sure they feel like they are being heard.

Doesn’t happen as often as it probably should.