In My Old Age...

I just took a stretch. (As in a common yawn from boredom, or some other excuse to get up from my computer for a few moments.) Thing is, I used to be able to casually stretch without various, random parts of me snapping and popping and whatnot. In fact, I remember when I used to consider people who popped when they stretched as 'old.'

Those were the days, huh? Back when other people were the old ones. Nowadays, I look at folks still in their twenties and think, "What a young-ass. You may be "invincibe" now, but just wait till you hit that 1,000th pizza. Who’ll be laughing then?"

Oh, did I mention that I look just like my father these days? (Though not quite as "jolly.") And he’s recently taken to hopping about on a cane. Everyday, the future just looks brighter and brighter...

I know, I'm only 35. But of course, by the time your body reaches a certain point, it no longer matters how old you are; because the process of dying must begin at some point, yes? (It’s only natural.) And so whatever age you happen to be at that time, life stops being so much about ‘doing whatever you want to do’ and more so about ‘maintaining what you’ve got left'!

That, my friend, is one the greatest milestones that everyone reaches in life...and I just did!

The above text was originally a journal entry that I wrote back in July of 2005. I'm 39 now, and reading this made me laugh a little. I'm still looking more like my father everyday, in the "jolly" department. But a lot of things—good, bad and just plain weird—have happened to me since that journal entry. So I'm glad to be where I am today. But still not looking forward to turning 40 next year!

—grif

Remember Life Before Cell Phones?

Yes, those days actually existed—the good ol' days, as I call 'em. I suppose that by now, it seems so long ago—so long, in fact, that there's a whole generation of young folks brought up on cellphones, who probably don't even remember a time when there weren't any. Which is kinda sad...

But if you can believe this, there was a time when we only had wired "home phones"—like the standard-issue Pink Princess that I remember as a kid—and people actually had to be "at the house" in order to be reached by phone! Sounds quite limiting by today's standards, I'm sure. But we just don't know what freedom we've given up by allowing cellphones, as well as other modern-day gadgetry, to become such an ubiquitous part of our daily lives.

Nowadays, I can't even decide to leave my cellphone at home on a Saturday—for the sake of enjoying a carefree weekend—without loved-ones complaining at me for not having answered their midday calls. My girlfriend even gets offended at the idea of my cellphone not being fully juiced and on my person at all times. "What if I were in an emergency—how would I get in touch with you?"

It's a valid point, right? But nothing worth trying to make me feel guilty about, as if I'm forsaking my loved-ones just because I decide to take a much-needed "personal day" from the world at large. Because one of the "freedoms" we trade for this 24/7 connectivity—via the various mobile devices we keep strapped to ourselves, even while on the toilet, as if the world would come to a sudden halt without us knowing everything that's happening—is our sanity.

I dunno about you, but I'm all about keeping that part of me intact, as best as possible; and I make no apologies for it. So some days, I see fit to leave all the techno-gear behind—so I can think, regenerate, and just live at my own pace for awhile.

All that's well and good and understood; but even so, we still have a tendency to operate otherwise. Why so? It makes you wonder, does anyone really remember what we did before cellphones came along? I mean, how did we ever survive?

—grif

Positive v. Negative

Did anyone see the interview with Will Smith, on the Tavis Smiley show, which aired December 13th, 2007? (Which ironically was around the time of my last post!) I just spied it online yesterday, and I must say, the guy's kinda deep. Check out this YouTube clip from the interview.

Wow..."the universe is water," he says!

"Make a choice. You just decide what it's going to be, who you're going to be, how you're going to do it. Just decide, and then from that point, the universe is going to get out your way. It's water; it wants to move and go around stuff. So for me, I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want."

So taking his "water" analogy further, WE are the swimmer! And as long as we keep swimming forward toward our goal, the rest of the world—like water—will flow around us, and "get out of our way."

I've even heard/read others declare that when you make up your mind and dedicate yourself to doing something, the rest of the world will align with you in trying to help you achieve that goal. Not so sure about all THAT, but it's a very unique way of thinking. Why? Because no one thinks that way.

I'm certainly guilty of being a pessimist, a cynic, a "realist"—or whatever word you want to call it—when I see fit. And along with that, I can also be one of those who can't seem to get past their own negativity—as if it were a helpless condition. But the other part of the equation is that when it comes to the stuff of life that I cannot affect, I must learn to become the "water." To flow around those obstacles, so I can keep moving forward to my goal.

So it seems that the Universe works both ways: Sometimes IT'S the water, sometimes WE are. The key to living a life that's positive vs. negative, I suppose, is knowing when to Swim and when to Flow...

—grif