Destressing

Do you find yourself in a hurry and feeling stressed often? Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself why? Allow me to take that thought just one step further and ask this question, "have you ever considered that the only person you are in competition against is YOURSELF?" I grew up in a home where I was raised primarily by my mom and grandma and there wasn't time to be competitive, they were too busy trying to keep their head above water financially. So, one might say I come by this attribute naturally. Any time my wife and I play a board game she hates it because she says I don't have a competitive bone in my body, and she is right. I just assume that there are more important things in life than beating my chest over a well-played game of Monopoly. Have you ever considered why you are in a big old rush to get your kid to soccer practice on time when #1) they are not even a starter, #2) they have no hope of putting themselves through college playing said sport, and #3) it's not even your turn to bring juice boxes. This in part is why participation trophies came into fashion. It was a way to show pity on those with no talent.

Most kids will never truly excel at a sport. The percentage that any child playing any sport (except Olympic curling, but nobody knows what that is) will be good enough to go pro is one-half of one percent. The Michael Jordans of the world don't grow on trees. That kind of self-control requires an iron will and great genes which most people just don't have. This is not a slam to your child's athletic skills; it's just a sad fact. So, the question of the day becomes this, are you stupid or just diluted? Don't attempt to live out your dreams vicariously through your kids, that can backfire for both of you quickly.

Try to accept that every time you look at a clock, check your watch, or just the upper hand left side of your phone screen you are living in a fantasy world. That is because time itself doesn't really exist, it's just an abstract concept. If I try to describe this table, I am typing on that's easy to do. It has four legs, it' smooth, and cool to the touch. I can do this exercise because a table is a physical and tangible entity. Try describing time; you can't because it's not possible. You can't see it, smell it, or touch it. Were it not for the ancient Egyptians, we wouldn't even have a word for it. Most stoners chose to ignore the concept of time until Pink Floyd wrote a song about it for their Dark Side of the Moon album. Were it possible to only look at the reflection in a mirror every ten years we would surely see the mark of time marching right along the lines in our face, but other than that we have no way to track the effects. Staring at our own reflection in the mirror daily is the same reason why in our fifties any time we run into someone we went to high school with our first thought is "WOW, they got old!"

Essentially, we only get 4,000 weeks to live our lives. This stems from the idea that that the average age for a human is 76 years (76 X 52= 4,000). So, how can we make the most of the time we are given? Keep in mind that running stop lights and flipping off our fellow man is optional but not necessarily advisable. I think it was granny that once said, "just because you CAN do it doesn't mean you SHOULD." While it is true we cannot get into heaven on our good deeds, it probably isn't advisable to invoke the devil in the process either. And what about this fact, you are ten times more likely to have a traffic accident between the months of October and December. What does that say about the state of humanity? Does that mean we are more likely to dog cuss our fellow man than we are to send him a Christmas card when he throws an elbow our direction to obtain a shopping cart? The erosion of western society started when retail giants invented Black Friday. I'll let you be the judge of how far we have slid down that hill, but it should be the cause of some serious reflection.

A man I once worked for advised me sternly that I should not wish my life away after I made the comment "I sure wish the weekend would get here." That was better advice than he knew because today I am 57 which is the exact same age he was when he dispensed that advice to me, not to mention that he is now deceased. Talk about the truth coming home to roost when I wasn't looking. I think about him and his commentary on life regularly. Folks, there is no secret sauce to getting older. The only thing that is needed is for our heads to hit the pillow and awaken again only to smack the alarm clock and repeat the old grind like it's Groundhog Day. You don't even have to try, it just happens. And take some advice from a person with more birthdays behind him than in front of him; it happens quickly.