Three pieces of music float through my head fighting for the opportunity to gain the honor of serving as the soundtrack for my life, at least for just a moment.
The Ecstasy of Gold, All I Ask Of You and that Indiana Jones theme.
That’s not to say there aren’t other players fighting for my attention because there are, but dammit, I am running at full speed away from a giant boulder and haven’t time to prepare the list.
Besides when I get a full head of steam going no one really wants to get in the way and I don’t stop on a dime anymore so I need to look for something soft to slam into.
Movie Break
And there my friends you have one of my favorite clips from one of my favorite movies.
Fiction or not, I like it because we are all just faking it and not necessarily until we make it.
Faking it because we grew up and discovered adults didn’t really know all that much more than kids do.
Sure, we gained some wisdom, self confidence and maturity because of life experience but we also found out how many questions remain unanswered.
Or alternatively how the answers to those questions didn’t always last, because we change and sometimes that change breaks the aforementioned answer(s) to those questions.
You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.
I have got to tell you, I have been the guy with the gun and the guy with the shovel and both have their advantages.
Granted digging at this age is a little more stressful than it once was but life experience helps a man learn how conserve his energy and go for the long haul.
There is something to be said for that.
Here We Go
Told the teenager that it is almost time to tell the town that Mongo is coming but he didn’t get the reference and that is ok.
I am not so sure he’d really appreciate it any way but as I said here, it is possible I am just a little excited about it.
And I think it is time for me to remind him that we are all just faking it and that’s ok.
I also want to remind him I didn’t make some of these changes thoughtlessly or without regard for anyone else.
If you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten.
I couldn’t do it anymore…
Take My Hand
I am driving through the desert and thinking about how many hours I have spent like this.
Alone in the car with my thoughts and whatever satellite radio station I choose to listen or not listen to.
Pushing on as fast as I can to move from point A to B because I see an opportunity.
I can see the heat rising off of the road and I am thinking about how sometimes the best and most important thing you can do is let someone know your hand is there if they want to take it.
Thinking about how some people get a free pass and can take that hand today or a twenty years from now while others have a very small window.
It is endlessly fascinating to me to think about how sometimes it is the little moments that surprise you because of how they morph from ordinary to extraordinary.
How you can spend 100 years with one person and never find things to talk about and someone else can walk in and in a moment you know they will never bore you, or you them.
There Is No Ready, Set, Go
Back in the present Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Sabotage by The Beastie Boys are campaigning to spend time as the life soundtrack but they’re facing stiff competition.
Neil Diamond’s He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and Procul Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale are warming up in the wings.
The schizophrenia of the music is a reminder of how much is going on and how there is no time to catch my breath.
The race started a long time ago, there was no ready, set or go and so I run.
But it doesn’t mean I don’t look for a way or ways to slow it all down for just a little while.
And maybe, just maybe if I can slow it down enough there will be an opportunity to make it all stop.
You can call me crazy, you won’t be the first or the last but I am certain there are ways to make things happen, you just have to be willing to do things a different way.
Change is frightening, but sometimes it is for the best.
