So You Have It All Figured Out, Right?

I just arrive home "early" from work and it feels great. It's amazing what can happen in just one month. About 30 days ago, I decided to pack my life up, move from my quaint little town and embark on a rather curious journey. My decision to do so was curious to say the least because if I had a choice I probably would have stayed on the same deserted island for the rest of my life. Safety is a rather interesting thing.

There's a scene in Men In Black in which Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith (J and K respectively) allude to the above that can be described as perspicacious to say the least. Will Smith just finished his preliminary screening at the MIB headquarters. The two subsequently perched themselves on a park bench facing the Hudson River the typically candid preset Hollywood heart-to-heart fashion. Jones pontificates- and rightfully so- about things we "know" as follows:


Jones (K): "Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. "

Imagine what you will know tomorrow. That's the funny thing about life; things are constantly in flux. Just as the ocean tides rush to the shore and recede with commensurate urgency so does each day. Similarly, time is fleeting too.

At a morning meeting, Premal, my boss, further emphasized this point through an interesting illustration. He asked: "What would you do if every day you were given $86,400 to spend however you wanted?" The only catch is that any unused money would not roll over to the next day. $86,400 at your disposal every day. Initially, people tried to save the money by buying cars, houses, and other luxury items. Although creative, their aspirations failed to attend to the moral lesson.

The 86,400 dollars are really the number of seconds allotted to each of us daily. With every moment, this precious capital is lost and can never be redeemed. People constantly refer to time as fleeting and I am finally starting to realize why they place such emphasis on the thing we most often take for granted. If you don't think a minute matters, consider the last time you got in to an accident. One hour? Yeah, that's probably the deadline you missed at work two weeks ago. I'm sure you would have loved another hour to clean up the ladder sections of that report or e-mail.

I was watching the Big Idea with Donny Deutsche a couple months ago. In typical Deutsche fashion he was interviewing successful entrepreneurs to find out what makes them tick. He asked the question we all wonder when it comes to those take the risk- why? The conversation eventually touched on this particular entrepreneur's motivation for starting his own business. He frankly divulged his motivation noting a survey taken of elderly Americans. They were asked if there was one thing they could change about their lives what would it be. Respondents gave several recurring answers but the most common response initially surprised me. Most people said they wish they had taken more risks.

One an anonymous person once said: "The only things in life you regret, are the risks that you didn't take." Take a leap today or tomorrow. The worst you can do is fail.

"In a world flagrant with the failures of civilization, what is there particularly immortal about our own?"

~G.K. Chesterton


Until Next Time,



M

Thesis Thing

It's ironic that my first post is related to something academic as this is supposed to be a social, political, soccer, and religious commentary. Despite my noble aim, my rant pertains to my thesis. I have forced myself to sit in front a computer day in and day out for almost as many hours as I usually sleep. While sleep is usually limited to seven hours, my trists with the mysterious Dell monitor have retained my interest for much longer as of late.

This week, I arose early and stayed up late reading, annotating and critiquing my sources. My thesis was supposed to be different, dynamic. My thesis was supposed to a groundbreaking. My thesis was not supposed to weigh on me as noticeably as the proverbial 2-ton elephant in the room. Yet, despite these detours, I remain eternally optimistic about its completion. And this defies explanation which says a lot considering my unchallenged status as a junior procrastinator. Their are many worse than I but, just the same, I beaten down the challenges of many to lay claim to this honor.

The Newsboys released a song entitled "Spirit Thing" many years ago. I never actually listened to the song but imagine the lyrics may mirror my odd relationship with the composition that is my opus. For over a year, I have read and read and theorized about sex trafficking. Only now, I retain a disinterested attitude towards my thesis which is meant to educate people while fulfilling its primary academic purpose: allowing me to graduate.

I'm just tired of reading and writing without doing! The more I read is the more I realize that I have nearly become an expert about this topic. That is not said with any hint of pride (okay, maybe a little) but it's true. At any rate, thank goodness, I have a blog to voice these mercurial emotions without coming across as a mad man. That's all for now...

Cheers, until our next tryst,

M