Mid Life Celebration

“Beware of the naked man who offers you his shirt”. — Harvey Mackay

By now, we know that there are many people who make tons of promises. Same with businesses, with marketing, with the Internet, and so on. False promises.

The real question is, to me, “What promises am I making to myself that are false promises?  Promises to be wary of”?

This is one of the main reasons we find ourselves in a mid-life crisis.

We start with good, well-intended promises, but in reality, they were really only false promises:

• Get healthier
• Spend more time with Family
• Learn more
• Forgive more
• Save more
• Be a better example

No one should feel alone reading this.  We all suffer from this.  We’re human. That’s what we do, we fail. Over and over again.

So now, consciously reminded of this, “What are you gonna do about it?  And I mean specifically, what are you gonna do today”?

“If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make a living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher.  I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances”. — Albert Einstein

Meanwhile in my zip code, there’s a sea of upscale vehicles, yet the 1990 Toyota suites me perfectly.

There’s even a dinner-plate sized dent on the driver’s front fender.  Was going to have it repaired until I realized how much that road-rage induced dent signified how lucky I am to still be alive.

In America, we are constantly tempted to keep up with the Joneses.  Why?   Because we are afraid of who we really are.

Would you rather be loved for who you’re not or hated for who you are?

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men.  No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man”. — Elbert Hubbard

What does it take to be extraordinary?

Is it reasonable to expect to become extraordinary?

Is it even worth it to try to become extraordinary?

What would extraordinary people say to these questions?

What would Earth be like without extraordinary people?

“We should all do what in the long run gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry”. — E. B. White

Or being a High School Basketball Team Manager:

If you had your life to live over, what would you change?

Well, you can’t live it over so it’s time to make a choice.  If you had a “second chance” starting today, what would you change?

Carpe diem!

“I think knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do”. — Lucille Ball

Well, this is gonna be a tough day.

Why?

Because I seem to have a deficiency.  It’s called doing too much.

Life is good, but life is hard.  Rest is good, but rest is hard.

The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.  I’m working really hard right now, while the sky is blue and clear.

Ya with me?  Carpe diem!

“There is only one success – to be able to spend life in your own way”. — Christopher Morley

Agree to disagree?  Good.  Because I’m going to do both here.

Sure, it’d be great to do whatever it is you want to do, when you want to do it.  And yet, it sounds a bit self-centered to my ear.

What abut sacrifice and service to others less fortunate?  Ask Mother Teresa her opinion on Christopher Morley’s quote.  Ask Jesus, or Abe Lincoln, or Martin Luther King.

Ask a mother, a father, a school teacher, a doctor or a nurse.  Ask a street sweeper, or a cook.

We all should consider where we stand on this issue.  And if we like our answer, awesome.  If we don’t…..

“Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and some pure foolishness”. — May Sarton

Quick 12-second Mid Life Celebration You Tube, from Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park:

Are ya with me?  Make your day unbelievable.

“When I grow up I want to be a little boy”. — Joseph Heller

I want to watch the colored leaves fall.

Then help to rake them in a pile.

Then get a running start and jump in them and play in them until it looks like they had never been raked.

Anybody notice the Autumnal equinox yesterday?

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone”.   — Henry David Thoreau

This one is particularly painful for me to read.  Why?  Because more is better.  Right?

I mean, five blogs a day?  Are you kiddin’ me?  Who does that?

Me.  Guilty.  Rut roe.

More is not better, except in a few things.

While visiting the West Coast, maybe there will be time to do less, think less, read less.

Probably not.

“The day is of infinite length for him who knows how to appreciate and use it”. — Goerthe

In our younger years, most of us had the luxury of not having overwhelming schedules.  Being bored was common.  And we dreamed of an exciting life.

Careful what you wish for, especially if you don’t read the fine print, “Exciting, as in overwhelmingly busy; insanely busy”.

I hung an old-fashioned wooden sign on our dining room wall which reads:

“The meaning of life is to learn how to enjoy the passage of time”.

“To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity”. — Robert Louis Stevenson

“To have a strong sense of personal identity requires being idle”. — jeff noel

There’s much to be said for both.

But not much more to be said right now.

Seize this day.  It’s yours.  Hurry up and do nothing.

Not quite yet.  But, I’ve been thinking about it for a couple years.

What is retirement anyway?

What do people do for income?

What do they do for self-esteem?

Are we resigned to slowly decay?

Will we finally be able to do all the things we always wanted to do?

Will we be bored stiff or amazingly active?

Will we be an example or a warning, on how to live life?

The good news?  I have formulated answers to these and, more importantly, have taken action.  Have you?

Mid Life Purple Cow?  It’s ok if you don’t know what this is.

It’s ok.  But it’s a shame.  Not a big shame, but a shame nevertheless.

Better late than never, right?  So I began reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow last week.  Finished it yesterday.

If you seek encouragement because you dream bigger than most, and you often feel “stupid” when people comment on your big dreams, this is a must read.

It will make you feel better. I guarantee it (unless you’re an alien).

If you are a Purple Cow (remarkable), most of the herd dislikes you because you’re different. Because you’re annoying; threatening, in a way.

Being remarkable is risky.  Playing it safe is risky.  In life, we get to pick one.  Don’t be a chicken.

Hot & naked?  Neither.

Hot and bothered maybe, but not hot and naked.  There’s a temptation to use sexual innuendos to sell things.

It’s pervasive.  So much so that this blog post title actually caused a reaction that was opposite of it’s purpose.

My purpose is simply to vent a little about how passively lives are lived.  And it almost feels, to me, like people have given up the will to work hard.

Hard work.  It’s the only way, at any age.

While the title was read with the wrong purpose, it was written with the right intent.

If you have the will but are finding the way difficult, Mid Life Celebration’s intent is to reach as many people fitting this description as possible.

“Outside a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.  Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read”. — Groucho Marx

I read every day.  Currently reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.

It’s a book about what it takes to be remarkable.  If you saw a herd of cows in a big field and one of them was purple, that would be remarkable.  It’s a business book.

And yet, I can’t help but correlate it to life, especially mid life.

There’s a temptation, in mid life, to think that we are past prime and there’s no point to reinventing ourselves.

Bullcrap.