WE'VE ONLY JUST ENDED

I remember the song done by the Carpenters’ entitled, “We’ve only just begun.” It is one of those sappy, heart-tugging forms of music they use at things like weddings. Hmmm, you think it would get the same reaction at a funeral? I guess not considering not everyone is too keen on the afterlife or possible eternal places of reference.

Just beginning is great in many ways. You are full of hopes and dreams and have the future of that beginning all figured out. Then, THEN, reality kicks you in the butt like it was some sadistic drill instructor.

Suddenly that bubble of prophesized lucidity bursts and instead you are back in the real world, groaning and feeling totally stupid for hoping for the impossible and getting only the possible. And I say, all the better. Reality may suck at times, but it what is real so be a grown up and cope!

Okay before you get ready to hang me for being an insensitive jerk (and why bother for that when I do plenty of other crap to be worthy of being hung for) let me point out that you can’t have any real success until you come out of the clouds. You can’t get rid of the muck and mire of life by flying away from it. You need a shovel and a whole lot of sweat and then when you are done you got to be ready to accept that how it looks it because it is meant to look that way.

Which is why I mention the idea of reflection from the perspective of only just ending. There is no better time to look in the mirror and see who is there than after you finish some effort. The history you create represent the real you. It is the composite of your genuine thinking and talents.

And it is from that platform of life you can use as a foundation for some honest expectations about tomorrow. Enjoy it, savor it and make you plans this time from the earth and not a group of clouds where fantasies always come true.

There are a multitude of endings in life. It isn’t just one event. So with each, learn something. Do something with what you learn and maybe the next time the outcome will be different. Or maybe not.

In either case, above all, despite how the win loss scoreboard tallied the game, enjoy it. That’s because life in any form is preferable to no life. Perhaps some might not think so, but that is how I cope.

And when all that attempts to convince my self that I’m just great when I blow it at something fails. That’s when I head somewhere for a few ounces of liquid courage.

Hey I said to keep your feet on the ground. But I never said you had to do it sober! Wings are great, but they are hard to come by. Booze however is plentiful and you never have to worry about it falling off!

Cheers and keep smiling. It is yet another flash of the practical from your guide to sanity that works in a world filled with insanity.