Masquerade- A Keeper Of Secrets

IMy daughter and I have an ongoing debate about who the stealthiest ninja is because some girls don’t know when to admit they are wrong.

Generally it is over Facetime after she has made me laugh.

“Dad, your whole body shakes when you laugh. I can feel the floor shake and hear the chair squeak.”

I smile and tell her I hide in the open and that my lack of my grace and loud voice are just a mask I wear.

“Dad is in a masquerade, but you always see the root and truth of who he is.”

She rolls her eyes at me and says something sarcastic and I tell her to keep practicing, “baby girl, I didn’t invent this game but I have 35 years of life experience you don’t have. That is invaluable and cannot be replaced.”

Another eye roll, “don’t rush to grow up, you’ll get there faster than you think.”

She doesn’t believe me anymore than I believed my parents, childhood seemed like it lasted an eternity and then it was gone in a blink.

15 Concerts I Have Been To

The new cool thing on Facebook is to list 15 concerts you have been to and one lie, I have never seen Peter Frampton but I love this live version so I am sharing it with you.

Anyhoo let’s play along  with Facebook and see what we come up with.

1. Barry Manilow
2. Neil Diamond
3. Elvis Presley
4. Simon & Garfunkel
5. U2
6. Ray Charles
7. Rage Against The Machine
8. Oingo Boingo
9. Joan Baez
10. Peter, Paul & Mary
11. Journey
12. The Roly Poly Good Old Boys
13. Otis Redding

Confession, I haven’t seen all of those acts in concert but I can name and or sing multiple songs by each.

Compared to many of my friends I really haven’t been to that many concerts and I don’t know if that will change, but it might.

There is a long list of musicians I would like to see play live, but some won’t ever happen because they are dead and or the bank broke up.

Given my almost middle aged status I have been thinking about what kinds of experiences I need to have and what I want because those proverbial sands of time keep slipping away.

Experiences, I want those more than material things because you can’t ever have those taken from you and because they lead to stories.

Stories, well I love those and that is part of why I like this Willie Nelson song so very much. It has layers and depth and yet it tells the story in such a simple and easy to understand way.

Break Some Rules

I suppose it is obvious I am not the best rule follower. I certainly didn’t do it with the Facebook concert game and I don’t always do it in life.

Does that make me an anarchist or bad role model?

Depends on who you talk to and what you are talking about. Some rules should be followed and some should be ignored because they are dumb.

We’re not going to turn this post into a conversation about what rules are good and what are bad because that is not what it is supposed to be about.

Suffice it to say I teach my kids to go along and get along but to do so while thinking about it. Sometimes you have to break some rules to get things done and that is just how it is.

The thing is if you are going to play fast and loose with the rules you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. I generally have thought about them and am ready to deal with them, should they need to be dealt with.

Given certain realities I have thought about this quite a bit and concluded the only way I can move the needle and make things happen is to be willing to massage things.

It hasn’t been my first choice but I have been confronted with some things where going by the book was a recipe for failure and that was unacceptable.

Speaking Of Failure

It is trendy to talk about failure as being sexy and proof of your willingness to take chances not to mention to grow and learn.

There is truth in that but failure isn’t always a good thing or something you can smile and be “aw shucks” about.

Sometimes it must be fought and avoided at all costs because the consequences are more than you wish to face and or bear.

Remember, I may be a rule breaker and insouciant fool but I never forget about the consequences and have usually thought a bit about whether I am willing to face them.

The hardest part is you can’t really appreciate how significant they will or won’t be without taking a chance and that makes it easy to suffer from a bad case of paralysis of analysis.

Incidentally I am usually bothered more by what I haven’t done than I what I did. Better to try and fail than fail to try.

BTW, you can also blame Arnold for some of my thoughts about failure and breaking rules. Say what you will about him, he has made things happen and had success.

The key things in that speech for me come down to the following:

1. Trust yourself
2. Work hard.
3. Take a chance.
4. Educate yourself.

Sometimes The Words Don’t Flow Freely

Life is rarely black and white

It is filled with contradictions and hard choices.

That is part of why we often live it like we are at a masquerade party and it is why a post like this has such a poor flow.

There are boundaries in what we can share, doesn’t matter whether they are self imposed or exist for reasons.

Not if you consider them valid and try to follow them.

So sometimes the words don’t flow freely and the net result is you get something like this mess, a series of fragmented thoughts thrown together.

Next time I’ll do better.