Life's Little Tragedies #3: "I've never..."
Do you ever get those moments in your life when you don't feel like you've done anything truly significant, whether for yourself or your fellow man, or that you've just never done any of the things you've wanted to do all your life? I'm sure we all do it from time to time, to whatever degree. Whether it's something as small as "I've never been to New York", or as life-changing as "I'll never win the lottery". We all have our dreams, our plans, our hopes, our desires. To those possible ends, there's always people that will tell you, "You can make anything happen that you truly want to happen", but let's face the facts...when you get right down to it, there's a ton of things that every one of us will never do in the span of our existance. Everyone from a lowly homeless person on the street to the President of the United States. But the cool thing here is, each one of us has our own unique experiences that craft us into the people we are, and we can say we've done things that nobody else has done, no matter how in-significant. That homeless guy will never in his life be the President of the United States...but George W. Bush will most likely never know the experience of sleeping under a blanket of stars every night, not owning a thing in the world or having to care about bills, and the only thing on his mind would be where his next meal will come from. I'm sure George is thankful he'll never know that, and I'm sure a lot of us would like to see him in that position...but the point is neither man is better than the other. Fortunes and positions don't make the man (or woman). It's the experiences we go through in life that make us individuals to be envied by others. I'd rather be like the person who's traveled the world with just the shirt on their back, and encountered every possible race of people and species of animal, than someone who's been born into money and power, and spends their entire life in a penthouse surrounded by their precious, guarded possessions.
I've never made a fortune in real estate and had my own primetime network television show...but has Donald Trump ever solved the Rubik's Cube?
I've never won an Academy Award, or even acted in a major motion picture...but has Tom Hanks ever played a horn solo in front of the parade crowd at the World's Fair?
I've never owned the definitive men's magazine and had countless, naked blondes at my beck and call...but has Hugh Hefner ever known the love of the finest woman Canada has to offer?
Those are just silly examples, but you get the point, I hope. There's no use in sitting around and fretting about all the things we've never done. Put yourself in the shoes of someone rich and famous and think about all the things they've never done, and probably never will do. You may not have their life, but then again, they don't have your life. Just because we haven't been around the moon three times and back, are our lives really so uneventful or meaningless? Think about it like that, and I'm sure you'll feel a little better...
...and if you don't, well then, get off your ass and get out there and do something! I'm free...want to go to New York?
;-)
posted by aboynamedjimmy at 2:10 PM
6 Comments:
A most excellent point (as always... damn if you're not turning out to be one of the wisest folk I know!) Each of us get (1) one lifetime, in order to (2) tell our own story. It's no one else's story. Bill Gates can't buy, and Dubya can't commandeer, my life story. It's me, the thread I weave through the tapestry of space-time, all mine. And, though filled with as many foibles and follies as Gates and Bush's stories, it's also filled with enough special joys and little pleasures that I can't regret it (well, not too much... there's always room for a little "if only...")
Don't let assertion (1) become an argument against reincarnation. I don't believe in it, but even if it's so, we get this particular one life to tell this particular one life's story, so the point's still valid.
Keep feedin' me wisdom, Brother Jimmy!
The last time I saw one particular person from my past, she asked me if I had any regrets, or if I would have done anything differently. I answered no to both, as did she. It was each of us telling the other that there was enough good to make it all worth while. (After thinking about it later, I actually came to the conclusion that I did have some regrets and I would have done some things differently in the hopes that things would have gone differently, for the better, than they did.)
Yes… We are the sum of our experiences. For better, or for worse, we are defined by what we have done, or not done, in our life. Some people will be considered greater than others, and some will not be considered at all. There will be those of us who will despise their experiences in life, where others will revel in them. Ultimately, it is up to each of us to decide what our life means. Has it been a good one, a bad one, a neutral one…? Only I can answer that for myself…
Never been to New York myself either when are we going?
I've done New York, so I'll set this trip out... But, I'd love to get back to Boston...
Count me in on Boston: MIT, Harvard Divinity School, and enough American history to make a grown man weep...
And don't forget the Science Museum... The last time I was there, they had a fully functional Tesla Coil and cage like one he used in Colorado.
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