Time To Play B-Sides

“Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma.  I believe everything happens for a reason.  I believe we were destined to get thrown out of this dump.” – Ghostbusters

If your wife insists you treat her like a queen, remember that allows you to behead her if the Pope doesn’t authorize an annulment.

Just a little bit before my time, a popular way to buy music was on a 45rpm record.  It was a little, circular YouTube® that you could put on a record player, for all you Zoomers out there.  These were small records that just contained a single song.  Generally, the best song was the “A” side.  On the back?  The record company generally put a song that they felt was inferior.  This was the “B” side.

The record company was generally right, but sometimes spectacularly wrong.  Queen’s “We Will Rock You” was the B-side to “We Are The Champions.”  But most of the time, the B-side really was an inferior song.  As time was precious and you can never tell when another one is going to bite the dust, why would you take time to listen to a song that wasn’t the best?

You wouldn’t.  Unless . . .

In the song, “Burning for You” by Blue Öyster Cult, one particular lyric is:

Time everlasting,
Time to play B-sides

Even though I owned a total of two 45’s in my life, I understood this when I first listened to the lyric on a dodgy cassette player that ate batteries like they were candy outside while stacking firewood.  Ben Franklin said it very well when he said:

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Time is our most precious commodity.  But what if you had time to play the B-sides?

You’d have all the time in the world.

Our lives are built entirely built in how we spend our time.  It’s like the Native American story of the two wolves inside of each of us – one good and one evil.  Which one grows?  The one we feed.

And we feed our life through the choices we make which choices we feed with our time.

And both of the wolves are named Toby.

One of my choices on how to spend my time has been writing this blog.  It has been one of the most fulfilling things in my life in the three and a half years since I started it.  So, by feeding it, I change my future.  To some very small extent, I might even change the lives of the people who read it.

Doing this blog is an A-side.  And it’s one I plan on continuing, if not expanding.

But we all need time for B-sides.  Why?  Because exploring the undiscovered can only take place when we move off of the path that everyone else takes.  I like to think that this blog is somewhat unique – it’s not to everyone’s taste, certainly.

Nah, you can see that Racine eats a lot of carbs.

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel,” is a quote from dead French writing dude Jean Racine.  And he’s right.  I think that life is mostly amusing.

One of the biggest sources of amusement to me is the idea that we can plan our lives.  Of course, to a certain extent, we can.  But everywhere we see that there are unexpected things that show up.  That is, perhaps, one of the best things in life.  The Chinese farmer story (which I’ve used before) tells the tale.

I first heard this from a friend in 2002 or so . . . there were several of us that would get together to talk about ideas and concepts, and one of the participants told this story:

There is an old Chinese story about a farmer.  One night, there was a terrible storm.  The wind blew so hard, it opened up his corral, and his horses got out.

“Bad luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

The next week, his horses, lonely for home, came back.  But while they were loose, they got in with a group of wild horses.  The wild horses came home with them.  The farmer now had twice as many horses.

A centaur got a cough and worried he had COVID-19, but the doctor told him only his legs were horse.

“Good luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

A wild horse is good to no one, so the farmer’s son began to work on breaking the horses.  Most of them were no problem, but one particularly fierce horse bucked the farmer’s son off.  The farmer’s son broke his leg.

“Bad luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

The next week, the Emperor, having decided to go off to war due to a very dangerous threat against the empire, marched with his troops through the farmer’s town.  They called up in a draft all of the able-bodied young men to accompany them to war.  The farmer’s son could not go – his leg was broken.

Good luck, bad luck?  Who can say?  Hopefully

Where do Vikings keep their children?  In the norse-ry.

One thing I do suggest is that, at least occasionally, you take the time to play at least some of the B-sides of your life.  You never know when life will throw a change at you, and your B-side becomes an A-side.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

30 thoughts on “Time To Play B-Sides”

  1. One of the major downsides of life in the digital age is that we can and often do get caught up in things we can’t do anything about. There is little I can do about voter fraud in Pennsylvania and Michigan or Gavin Newsome telling the peasants to eat cake in California. What I can do is be with my family and friends here and now. We should try to enjoy life on the flip side when we can, while we can.

    1. The positive side is Governor Newsom’s rules for thee, not for me dinner hopefully energizes his recall which was recently granted a 120 day extension.

      That doesn’t address the overwhelming election of Dems in California in the first place but it’s a small start.

  2. “Always look on the bright side of life!”
    Take the time to smell the roses.
    Make the time to kill the thistles.

    1. Unless you have donkeys.

      At least in our neck of the woods it is surprising how many weeds have value.

  3. I feed both wolves a generous high-carb, high-fat diet.

    45s – now that brings back some memories. The two 45s I remember most were 1) Seasons in the Sun, and 2) I shot the Sheriff.

  4. After decades of construction superintending, My A and B sides not only co-mingled, they decided every work day shall be Monday. It’s like living on the edge of a mobius strip.

    1. I understand a little bit. I worked in places where I was happy to begin and then after a few years, some people wore on me. Sort of a rinse and repeat for decades even though I promised myself the eventual disillusionment wouldn’t repeat. During one particularly rough stretch, it felt like time was actually slowing down. Every single time I had a smile on my face on my final day of departure.

      Eventually I stopped this pattern for good.

      I’m still trying to understand how to fix this in case I work again doing something I really enjoy instead of something based solely on salary.

      1. I used to love my job. Now it is literally a hostile work environment. Everyone keeps a careful 6′ plus away and the body-language expresses fearfulness. Masks hide all facial expression and muffle voices, so everyone is half shouting.

        I come off shift completely wrung out.

  5. I understand a little bit. I worked in places where I was happy to begin and then after a few years, some people wore on me. Sort of a rinse and repeat for decades even though I promised myself the eventual disillusionment wouldn’t repeat. During one particularly rough stretch, it felt like time was actually slowing down. Every single time I had a smile on my face on my final day of departure.

    When I became able to, I left for good.

    I’m still trying to understand how to fix this in case I work again doing something I really enjoy instead of something based solely on salary.

  6. 45s are what I purchased the weeks I could not afford the price of a full album.

    I often found that I liked the B side stuff as much or more than the Top 40 hit on the A side.

    That came more pronounced when I bought full albums and found that some of the best stuff never made it to Pop 40 radio.

    1. Listened to it while pushing a wheelbarrow moving five cords of wood. Also good times, though I didn’t see it at the time.

  9. Great story. You never know when new opportunities can arise. But sometimes you have to try the B side to realize those opportunities. I think the reason debt is so insidious is that it limits your opportunities.

  10. Definitely feel like I’m at a major transition point, like my previous professional life is over, and a new thing is beginning.

    I thought it was time to prep for an exciting new journey, and then SARS-2 plus The Troubles came along, and now I’m confused.

    It’s possible I’m indeed preparing for a new profession, just not the one I had in mind a little while ago. I guess we’ll see.

  11. Recent retirement is definitely like flipping over the 45.

    But I sincerely hope the B side is better.

    It definitely has not been what I planned due to SARS-2 and The Troubles. That sounds like a band that would have played on the Dr. Demento radio show -> https://drdemento.com/online.html

    I was going to include a link to the B-side of “Classical Cluck” which has In the Mood from Henhouse Five Plus Too and was played often decades ago on that ridiculous radio show, but this has been a good group and seems a little cruel.

  12. On this side of the Atlantic,the B side to Bohemian Rhapsody was Roger Meadows-Taylor’s “I’m in love with my Car”

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