“When you get to the fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra
What would it feel like to get an hour or two of extra life per day? I am about to find out. I’ve just had my third minor surgery on the same issue. I’m hoping the third time is a charm. It’s all minor until it happens to you, right? Regardless, it has given me the opportunity to ask this question because of the time involved with my wound care.
I, for one, don’t want to find out what it feels like to do less with more. I’ll leave that to Coach Calipari and Kentucky Basketball. Take it easy, UK fans, I got that from a Kentucky person and couldn’t resist. If you got red-faced there, it’s likely you sense the truth in the statement. We’ll see how March Madness plays out. Not everyone can be a Coach Staley.
Back to my point. I want to piggyback off something my writing partner in Wholly Holistics, the wonderful Katherine Brown, put forth in her most recent column. “Give yourself permission to change your beliefs, especially about yourself.” Genius should not be confused with wisdom. How often do we see talent that doesn’t translate into success?
The title, Simplexity, another Yogi Berraism, speaks to our human nature of mountaining those mole hills. Just because it’s human nature doesn’t mean we can’t evolve. Now is the time.
There will always be those in the crowd that say the world has gotten so terrible because of this or that. Guess what, they heard it said from previous generations about their generation, then before that generation, it was said of that generation, then before that generation, it was said of that generation, then before that generation…
Well, you get it. So, let’s say and do something else. I recommend listening, I mean really listening, to the lyrics of the Billy Joel classic Keepin’ the Faith. “’Cause the good ole days weren’t always good, and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems…” That line sums it up, but the entire song speaks to this notion. (By the way, while writing this column, I watched the Keepin’ the Faith video for the first time. It’s cute and very 80s. I know, but I never had cable growing up until I went to college.)
It’s okay to be nostalgic. It’s an understandable human emotion that deems some movies, like some fashions, never go out of style. That’s why some people, places, and things become classic. Nostalgia aside, it’s a brand-new day when Old Spice deodorant has aluminum-free options. Who’s spicy now? Some things were never needed and were always going to be detrimental. As I have said on more than one occasion, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Back to my opening line, what if you could get an extra bit of life like it’s a video game? This could go beyond medical issues and jump to energy vampires. You know, the ones that place land mines in your path on the reg that suck the ever-loving life out of you. It could be a habit you no longer find habitable. It could be something bitter-sweet like a child no longer needing you to drive them to school and activities daily. It could be a new job that employs you in a much more efficient manner. It could be agility with your time management skills. I would love to have the forgotten time spent in my phone. Whatever it is, try thinking of it this way and see what you come up with. The mere thought and excitement over the possibilities could inspire change. I’m seriously considering using my time to dive in to fiction for the first real time since my novel’s debacle. That’s a story for another day. See what I did there?
What do you keep in your keep? Keep is defined by the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows as an important part of your personality that others seldom see. It could be time to shine the light on what you’re keeping inside. After all, spring is springing.
As to my medical issue, apparently, I’m not a freak. Here’s where I wasn’t nice to myself like I preach to y’all. I should not have had to have a doctor tell me this, but I am glad I asked the question, just the same. When I asked her if I was a freak, she told me she did six similar surgeries the previous day, so there. Honestly, we’re all freaks of nature in our own beautiful ways.
Superman had to have his kryptonite, didn’t he? In his vulnerability, we see his strength. It’s why we’re still attracted to his story nearly a century after the man “who could leap tall buildings with a single bound” landed on planet Houston, I mean Earth. It’s why the story continues to be added to and retold. Do not be ashamed of your kryptonite, it’s part of you like it was part of Superman’s home.
Allow me to digress here, but I, for one, don’t know why anyone would bother rehashing Superman after Christopher Reeve. I mean, you gotta at least give me that he was the best Clark Kent. Overall, I wish they’d stop with the remakes. Roadhouse? Puhlease. What does this say about originality in Hollywood, when you’re remaking a marginal Patrick Swayze movie? No shade meant against Swayze, he was one of the best to don the silver screen, but stop with the remakes. Okay, now I will stop and return to my point like Superman returning to Smallville to see Mama Kent.
So often, we’re hell bent that strength comes from white-knuckling things by the throat. “If you have to reach for it, it’s not yours.” (Coach Taylor) Release the grasp and see what happens. We no longer must use course sandpaper. Fine grain texture will smooth things just fine.
I’ll end with something I’ll paraphrase from Coach Prime with a dash of the Golden Rule sprinkled in. I see more in people than they see in themselves, and hope to be done unto, likewise. It can be how it works as we evolve the human race for generations to come. Evolution starts at the granular, or individual, level and spreads like wildfire when we take that fork in the road.
