Truths

The other day our neighbors left for the weekend in a large trailer, and with several additional vehicles. My wife said they were probably going to Elephant Butte Lake.

Ah, I said...what will they do there?

Stuff you'd find boring, she said. Cooking out and fooling around with jetskis and...sometimes, doing nothing.

I thought about that for a few minutes, and then said that, well, it's fair. The rest of the world would probably find my life boring.

No, she said. They'd find it overwhelming.

I thought a lot about that, and about the old adage that some of our lives are intended as inspirations, and some are intended as cautionary tales.

Mine's a cautionary tale.

Do too much 'stuff', with too much resolve and not enough humor, and you'll one day realize that the joys that your family, friends, and neighbors take to their hearts are alien to you.

If your life is a succession of goals and causes, with the requirement to keep an edge on between 'deployments', you'll miss the stand-downs that are supposed to keep life worth living. You may be physically present at the party, but your soul's off doing another thousand pushups.

Because it may be important one day.

And, in truth, it HAS been important. I've saved lives - including my own.

But joys lost can't be recalled, and the caution is this -

Please, please, find a balance.

I didn't. And it is, now, too late.