The Riddler

Almost nothing in life is for certain. The only thing we are compelled to do by natural law is live, die, and pay taxes. Which leaves us with the age-old question, why are we here? My dad was famous, (or infamously) known for saying the following: "The meaning of life is the pursuit of the meaning of life." This means the task is never complete. I hate the thought of lying there in my caskets with a furrowed brow and my head resting on that frilly mock pillow, still contemplating the cosmos and the origination of my navel. Does dark matter really exist if we never experience it firsthand? What would happen if you could travel through a black hole without dying? Would time cease to exist? This is like asking if a tree falls in the forest would it make a noise? Essentially, life is a riddle that we are compelled to solve, but the answers aren't available on the back of page six or the back of a cereal box.

Higher education evaded me as a young adult. I was a daydreamer. I always found myself in a classroom, wondering what all the REAL people were out doing today. When my high school guidance counselor advised me to pick either a trade or a junior college, I ignored her, that was until I could no longer put it off. The usual routes of successful folks evaded me. It wasn't that I didn't care, it was just that I didn't want to stop living my life long enough to concentrate on an education or a trade. To me that seemed like an unnecessary distraction to what I was put on this earth to do. Robin Williams once said, "I want to live deliberately and suck the marrow out of life." Never mind that his quote came to him via another exasperated poet who may or may not have be better known (Walt Whitman). Both uncle Walt and Robin died tragically but for totally different reasons. Could I have gotten all A's if I had applied myself? You bet your butt I could have. But why bother? Up to that point I had a charmed life, that was until it wasn't. The one thing that mom was right about is that I would have to earn every dollar by the sweat of my brow, that was the downside. The upshot is, I don't mind.

At some point we all have to pick a job to do to put food on the table. It could be a notable career we love or a dead-end job we hate, either way it is a necessary evil. It still floors me how much we do in the name of necessity and don't do in the form of procrastination. This is just another way of overstating the human condition, which is a game we all play, whether we think we do or not. It cannot be overstated enough how much we all abide by the rules of life, although some of us put them off as long as possible. Much is made of the virtue of the early bird, but it's rare that we are reminded of the unfortunate fate of the worm who wanted to get an early start. Just think about it.

But as you procrastinate remember most people live a total of 4,000 weeks, this is taken from the idea that most of us live an average of 76 years. So, what you put off today you may not get a second shot at tomorrow. This may or may not break your heart, but it is food for thought. I recently broke down the numbers and figured out that by this life equation I figured I have about a thousand left, or in other words the portion I have left stands at about a quarter. This is an eye opener that should change the way I live from day to day. But will I change my ways? Common sense says I should, though chances are I won't. We work every day to put food on the table; that's just the American way. These jobs make us tired and one day usually just rolls into the next and before we know we are in the throughs of old age and just summarily hanging on by a fingernail, possibly one with a hangnail. Does this kind reality check make you sad? I think my wife is right; I don't have the skills required to be life coach.