Musings

I’ve traveled with my wife and kids to the other side of the ocean. The Atlantic, to be exact. We’ve moved here, actually; we aren’t just here on a vay-kay. This is our new life.

Forgive me if I’ve been quiet recently. The move and everything it has entailed have given my lizard brain plenty of material to use, plenty of excuses and opportunities to avoid the real work…

But I am here now, settling in. My family, too. We are well. I have started my new job. Life is taking shape.

But I came here for a reason. And it is time to get back to the work.

I was in Belfast two weeks ago. It’s a great city. The first thing I did after checking into the hotel was take a walk. It was Sunday morning, so not much was going on in the streets. However, down the street from the Belfast Hilton is a “weekend market.”. It was open, so I checked it out.

The market was alive with activity. Even though it was cold outside and the air in the market was smoky from sizzling breakfast food, there were plenty of people milling about. It was a great first experience in the city, and it gave us a hint of what was to come.

At the tail end of our trip, on the last might in town, I went to a Mexican restaurant to get a sense of what “Mexican” means in this part of the UK. So, I started my trip by jumping right into Belfast life and ended it by looking at a part of the world through Belfast-tinted lenses.

Mexican food in Belfast is sort of like Mexican food but not really. It has all the right ingredients. The familiar tastes are all there. It even looks sort of right. But it isn’t; it just isn’t right. There is just something…missing. But the wrongness makes sense in it’s own way.

Everything suffers by comparison if it’s not the original. Sounds elementary, I know, but it’s often an overlooked truth. Unfortunately, we spend a crapload of time making those comparisons. And when we compare the present to the idealized past, the present fails the comparison test. How can it not?

The present can never be a return to the past. The past can never be brought into the present. They are, by definition, mutually exclusive. No matter how hard you try, no matter how many of the original ingredients you gather together, every attempt to recreate the past is simply another present moment.

So, appreciate THAT; appreciate the present moment. Don’t curse it for what it isn’t; love it for what it IS.

Sort of Like Mexican food in Belfast.

I should be writing because there’s a lot on my mind, but this transatlantic travel stuff is tiring for those of us not practiced in the art. That’s all I’ve got: a transatlantic excuse.

Off we go, now, to try something different. 850 miles by road, and that’s just the start. Planes and another car are in the cards before we get to see this new place for ourselves.

We’re planning on something different in 2011. This is just the beginning!

The first month of the year is halfway done. That leaves just 11.5 to go. Do you know where your destiny is?

You are my destiny. You are my future. You are everything that I need and want. You are the key to unlocking my full, unfulfilled potential.

Or not. We’ll never know, though, if our paths are meant to cross unless we get a move on it. The first month of the year is halfway done. Do you know where your destiny is?

Chances are it’s right where you are. No fairy tale for you, my friend. No easy way out. No fast path. The first month of the year is halfway done, and whatever you’ve done in that time is precisely what you intended to do in that time.

Moral of the story: your destiny is created ever day when you wake up. What are you going to do with the next 11.5? The possibilities are nearly endless.

“Deadline”Cycle of seasonsEbbing, flowing of the tidesGreen leaves turn to brownTicking of the clockCountdown to zero hourProcrastinationDeadline, I loathe theeThere is nothing naturalIn your arrivalNature knows her waySo gentle is her processOurs is so abruptOf course, without youSo many things unfinishedDeadline, I need you!

My wife gauges my level of happiness by the twinkle in my eye. I love how she giggles with excitement when she sees it; I hate when she points out it’s absence. Either way, there exists a state of mind which manifests itself physically. We feel it inside, but they see it outside. And they see it clearly.

So, do you still think you can fake it? Anyone who cares enough to look carefully will see the truth…even if you don’t know the truth yourself.

Be mindful of the twinkle. It will almost always give you away.

Boy, that movie sucked. I’d always wanted to see it, too. Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Annette Benning, Pierce Brosnan…the cast is seriously impressive. The premise us great, too: first contact with an alien civilization goes horribly wrong, and we have to figure out if we made some cultural blunder that caused the whole fiasco. And Tim Burton directed! Comedy, action, science fiction, cast, director, social commentary, and a musical number with the legendary Tom Jones! What else could you want?

How about a not-crappy movie?

On paper, it probably looked great. Sort of like a lot of our ideas in life. And just like a lot of our ideas in life, going from theory to practice…yeah, didn’t really work out so much. Sometimes, no amount of planning can prepare you for or save you from poor execution. That’s the moral of the story. Actually, not really.

Do you know what? That movie was made in 1996. Nicholson has been nominated for two Oscars since then. He won one of them. Glenn Close has made about 18 other films since then, worked extensively in television, and won several awards including an Emmy for her current show, Damages. Natalie Portman? Say what you will about them, but she carried the three Star Wars prequels. There’s Oscar buzz surrounding her latest performance in Black Swan. Pierce Brosnan was James Bond. James-freaking-Bond. Tim Burton has directed seven films since then. I could go on. And that’s sort of the point: everyone went on. With Mars Attacks, they took a chance, they made a movie, they moved on.

Few of us fail so publicly and so spectacularly as an actor or director in a Hollywood dud. Most of them just keep going on, keep working. What choice do they have, really? They love movies. They keep making them. They love telling stories. They keep telling them. They love bringing characters to life. They keep acting. It’s that simple.

How about you? Are you going to quit when you fall on your face? Or do you love your art enough to keep moving on?

I don’t ride horses. Most people I know don’t either. Somehow, though, the image of someone falling off a horse or getting bucked only to turn around and get right back on…somehow that image is one to which most can relate.

Don’t give up. Most of the time, we give up because we’re afraid. Yes, falling off a horse can be dangerous, even deadly. However, most of us aren’t getting thrown from horses. Most of us just run the risk of being wrong or looking stupid. Not much risk in that.

So…the saddle: get back in it. I’m getting back in mine…