“That’s a bold statement.” – Pulp Fiction
A lion would never drive drunk. But a tiger would.
One of the problems with life in Modern Mayberry is that it often moves at a fairly slow pace. Especially in the time when an adult is focused on raising kids, the days tend to blur one into the next.
If your life is good, this isn’t really a problem. When I was younger, my life was spent going to weddings. Now that I’m older, more time is spent going to funerals. It is important to not get mixed up as to which you’re at, although sometimes “My condolences,” is appropriate at a wedding and I’d almost be willing to bet $20 that at least one person will say “Congratulations!” after my funeral.
However, in the event that I’m wrong, collecting on that bet might be a problem.
Maybe I’ll add bikini girls. Will that put the “fun” in funeral?
One thing that facilitates this blur is reading stuff on the Internet. One blogger I read (LINK) is giving up doomscrolling (or reading the unending list of negative stories that are available in the news) for Lent. I suppose you could leave him a comment, but you’d have to wait a few weeks to get a response.
But when it comes to doomscrolling, there are huge numbers of these stories available. The business model is simple: scary stuff attracts eyeballs, and eyeballs means revenue. As I look at my own past posts, I’m thinking that, even though I talk about a lot of scary stuff, that I’m mostly relentlessly positive. I can even recall a comment section or two where I’m called a Pollyanna because I’m so positive.
What do we want? Hearing aids. When do we want them? Hearing aids.
I can live with that. Being positive, being for things and knowing that, in the end it’s all going to work out keeps me positive. In most cases (most, not all!) the things I write about don’t make me angry, either.
Again, stress on the “mostly”. And I try not to get worked up about events occurring half-a-world away that I can’t control or even much influence. Things are what they are.
And, for most of us, things are generally pretty good on a day-to-day basis, even when things aren’t perfect. Even on a bad day, most parts of the day are good. The thing that gets us is built into the doomscrolling: spending time worrying about things that simply have not happened.
My friend wrote me a text that said, “What do you get when you mix a gullible person with an optimistic person?” I replied, “I don’t know!” He texted back, “Read it again.”
I write about the coming Civil War 2.0 not in hopes that it comes, rather to make people aware that it’s coming. Do I sit and worry about it daily?
No!
That would take away from the time I spend thinking about the Roman Empire.
In this moment, there are things that I could let bother me. However, I realize that letting them bother me gives them power over me when that’s the last thing I want. “Take not counsel of your fears,” is attributed to George S. Patton, Jr. I’m sure other people said the same thing in similar ways in the thousands of years that people have been saying things, but when Patton says it, well, it’s been said.
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” – GSP
If I let my fears fill me up, I live a life of fear regardless of if it’s a perfect 63°F, and I have a wonderful cigar, and a great book beside me while sitting in a comfortable chair.
I think fear comes to people as they age. I certainly saw Pa Wilder get more and more cautious as he aged. I could give a few examples, but it doesn’t much matter. I did notice. And when I saw the tendency to do it start to crop up in myself, at least I understood what was going on and I could choose to be cautious or choose to be bold.
I think, however, that as I get older it is precisely the time to be bolder. Life moves in a blur, and days stack up faster, so they should mean something. If I knew I had only a year? What would I do?
Something to make that year worthwhile. If a month? A day?
The shorter the time left, the more that boldness matters and the less caution should. If I only had an hour of my life left, you can damn sure bet I’d do something with it, as much as I could.
Oh, that’s Samuel L. Jackson, not the famous English dude Samuel Johnson. I guess that’s the Netflix® version of the quote.
But life is built on compound interest. The more I try to write, the better I get. The more I lift, the stronger I get. The time to start is now.
The actions should be bold. While my days may pass fast, the more I can do with them, the more I will do.
When I pass, what will be left are the lives I’ve touched, the children that I’ve raised, the ways I’ve made the world better, and the words that I have written. Since the restraining order dictates who I can touch, and the lessons to the children are mainly done, that leaves making the world better and writing.
Even a full human lifetime isn’t enough, because they are so very short. But I’ll make do. With the remaining decades (hopefully) of my life, how big a dent can I kick in the Universe?
I guess I’ll see. And I’ll smile some, every day. And enjoy that cigar, and book, and chair when I’m not being bold.
“L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace.”
“Life is short” is a rather odd trope. How would anyone still living know that? As near as I can tell, I’ve been alive quite literally forever. If there was a “world” before I matured into sentience, I did not experience it, and I only know of it anecdotally. And since the seconds continue to tick as I go on living, and living, and living, there’s nothing but more anecdotal evidence to say that my life will eventually end. From my own perspective, I am immortal. Been here since the very beginning, so far as I am aware. And ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Dwell on that.
Jean Paul Sartrecasm
Completely agree on the “life is short” comment. There are times when I look back and miss my youth, but not enough that I want to do it over again. I’ve had a good life so far and cherish the memories. but I don’t want to go through acne, the rat race of my first job, or Jimmy Carter for a second time. I also don’t think it has gone by quickly, but only that the brain has a tendency to apply pretty heavy compression algorithms to squeeze all those memories together into one storage device (which just makes it seem quick). If I could pick which part of my life to relive , that might be different, but even the joy of only hanging around big breasted women and playing video games would get tiring pretty quickly and life would once again slow back down.
Life is short and hard, like a bodybuilding dwarf.
Is it solipsistic in here?
Or is just me?
John – – Boldness in the face of fear is called: COURAGE
Another of your missives to keep…..
Thanks
Thank you – I used that in a conversation in the last three days, when it needed to be heard the most.
Be bold and never, ever apologize for who you are.
Exactly – and never compromise your virtue.
Excellent humor, excellent advice, John.
I remember reading this from a while back and looked up this version of the story just now…
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“Fortune Favors the Bold” is a popular quote. As it turns out, the story behind this saying has an ironic twist.
The phrase was uttered by Pliny the Elder, Roman navy commander, during a rescue mission as Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 ACE. His advisors suggested greater caution, but his only retort was: “Fortune favors the bold!” He sailed zealously across the bay under the threatening sky of the bellowing volcano.
Pliny should have listened to his advisors. He was stranded on the beach where he landed, and while he tried hard to encourage his men, he succumbed to the gases and destructive force of the volcano and died a horrible death. The only fortune that Pliny attained was the immortality of his famous quote.
**********************************
Immortality ain’t bad for one day’s work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_favours_the_bold
And that’s why we remember his name. Job done.
Life is short, eternity ain’t. Strike with all your might, like Elisha just handed you a bundle of arrows and said ‘Here’s your enemy’.
Bible says these are the times when the principalities ‘wear out the saints’. Be among the joyfully exhausted.
This place and time constitute a singular and novel opportunity for Christian men, seeing the place is so saturated with evil. It’s a one-time opportunity. Next time they write the songs (and they will), make sure they’re about you.
Turns out I can’t hit the “like” without logging in to Word Press, which I decline to do. So I’ll just say: you said a mouthful.
Turns out, I cannot hit “like” even when logged into WordPress: WDE.
So here’s an upvote for your comment, and for the post, because I agree. Good one!
See Ricky’s comment about Pliny – we remember his name for a reason.
Say what again!
Do they speak English in What? English, m—-rf—-r! Do you speak it?
Tony Rockyhorror?
I would never be a vegetarian.
“To those who said to Diogenes the Cynic ‘You are an old man; take a rest,’ ‘What?’ he replied, ‘if I were running in the stadium, ought I not to slacken my pace when approaching the goal? Ought I not rather put on speed?'”
– Diogenes Laertius, Live of Eminent Philosophers
I had never heard that. Thank you. Time to sprint.
You’re not too Pollyannaish. You’re just enough Pollyannaish.
Why, just the other day, someone was saying “I read Wilder’s blog, and that’s just enough Pollyanna for me.”
Seriously though, too much doom and gloom is like living in the basement. In Seattle.
Life was meant to be lived in the sunshine.
The clouds will come along on their own. But that just makes sunny days all the more glorious.
And the people that run around carrying lightning rods in thunderstorms are just idiots.
Funny to watch (from a safe distance). But still idiots.
We all owe a death, eventually.
Might as well live a life, in the meantime.
(Unless you’re Patton, then you can live multiple lives. 😉
Wonderful words, and thank you. We do all owe a death. And our lives should mean something since we will all sell them so dearly. Eventually.
Man, I love Patton.
So you write this on the same day that VP Camel is speaking at a security conference in Munich. Proof positive that the movie Idiocracy was a prophecy. I don’t know what else to call a documentary covering future events.
So your story today was a nice counterpoint.
Thank you! When Kamalatoe is my comic relief, I have won.
I’m feeling that way myself. A funny thing happens when Death taps you on the shoulder to remind you that he’ll be catching up with you soon.
Always has been. And I’ll be fighting every second until he arrives.
The never ending doom being shoveled at people is also part of the lefts plan. Keep everyone afraid of a never ending stream of nasties and the people will beg those in power to “DO SOMETHING”. And of course those in power have plans…and will do something. It won’t solve any of the manufactured problems. But it WILL make those in power richer and give them more power. And that’s the whole point behind all the doom porn.
Yes, it’s calculated and deliberate. Frightened people are easy to manage.
Men value freedom. Women value safety. The fear-porn society was manufactured concurrent with the rise of feminism. It works.
Bingo.
It is. And most of the Fear Porn stories disappear in a month or two. How many of them from five years ago can you even remember?
Actually, it’s been an endless stream of Doom Immanent Events via the media for fifty years. An unending cascade of polar ice caps melting, killer bee invasions, magnetic inversions shit you name it. Every few years a new breathless horror.
One year when living in the Bay Area they dumped pellets of God Knows What onto entire towns, including my brother’s house. Why? Combatting that Dread MedFly doncha gnow.
The narratives originate in the intel agencies, CIA in the old days but lately the agit-prop is getting more diverse.
As the feminine rises to power in the nation, the gyno-herd is stage-managed from D.C., via fear and covetousness. After all, who knows more about female nature than Goddess Columbia and her District?
And 98% of them don’t impact us. Funny that they’d want us afraid.
That picture of Patton sure looks like Trump. Reincarnation anyone?
I think both would nod.
Have You Ever seen a Lion Golf?
“A lion would never drive drunk. But a tiger would.”
Nice. 10/10.
“Just when I thought I was out … you pulled me back in.”
Also …
“Damn the devil. Damn the devil to hell!”
(I swear I remember Elliott saying “you”, not “the”. But BrainyQuotes must be smarter than I am. Yes, I verify my quotes before I send them — I’m that old too!)
Heh! I check ’em, too!