The Journey is Half the Fun?!?  

Posted in , ,

I always prided myself on having a ton of patience. Lately I've realized that is sort of a lie. I think that I have very little patience after all.

I've come to the conclusion that reading has done this to me. Now how can reading possibly make somebody have less patience you might ask? It's really quite simple. When you read a book of any length, the things that are happening in the story don't happen in real time. A young boy witnesses the death of his father, he runs away from the danger to be raised by a nomadic tribe. While he is with them he learns all sorts of survival skills that better equip him to handle physical situations. As well as teaching him to "commune" with nature and be one with his environment. That's a not too uncommon theme in a lot of adventure books. The problem is that when the story picks up again the boy is grown up and has already learned all this stuff. The story moved along and he is self sufficient and sometimes already becoming successful and wealthy.

I want that. As I read these stories it sounds so great. Learn all these really great things and go out and take the world by storm. There is just one problem....It doesn't happen overnight in real life. We have to actually commit to our goals, we have to make priorities and follow through with a plan. No guarantees either. We could work for years to attain that goal only to find that it's a pretty sad state we are left in.

There are no do-overs. Sure we can go along a different path and try something else, but you can never get back the time you invest. I was always told to enjoy the ride, because the journey is half the fun. Maybe that's true, but I'm still waiting. Don't get me wrong I have so many things to be grateful for. I have a great family and a good job. I'm fairly healthy. Those are all things I should be thankful for each and every day. BUT.....I want more. I want that storybook ride. You know where you go in and take down the bad guy, become the hero and save the day. The community thinks you are a swell guy and little kids want to be like you.

Unfortunately that is why it's a story. It's meant to inspire or frighten. To motivate you to some emotion. Well congrats to the authors of all these books I read, you have indeed motivated me to some emotion, and lately it's been irritation. So I've decided to just try that advice I always got when I was a bit younger. I'm gonna enjoy the ride and see if the journey really is half the fun.

I guess I should be happy that I don't have 3 feet of snow blocking my doorway. No mudslides and no freaky storms of any kind lately. It's high 60's and the sun is shining most of the day. So I guess it could be worse.. While I'm enjoying the "ride" I'm still going to keep my eyes open for that one chance to save the family from the burning building or stop the runaway car, cause you just never know right?

This entry was posted at Monday, February 15, 2010 and is filed under , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

12 comments

I'll take the do-overs!

February 15, 2010 at 8:41 PM
Anonymous  

I laughed out loud when I read that your emotion has been "irritation". Well said!

February 15, 2010 at 9:56 PM

I wish we could 'save the game' in life like when playing video games.
Then we could see where it takes us, and if we don't like it, we can go back to our save game and try a different tack..

February 16, 2010 at 5:34 AM
Anonymous  

I gave up on the "fairytale" a long, long time ago. I am happier for it. I truly live day to day.
Great post...
I know what you mean about emotions being and irritation. I wish I could cut off certain emotions at will.

February 16, 2010 at 5:59 AM

Aren't you the hero in your family?

You've got a community (at least 36 readers and your family) that think you're a pretty swell guy.

Don't sell yourself short my friend.

February 16, 2010 at 12:16 PM

Have you seen the movie 'Click', with Adam Sandler? Your post made me think a lot about that. If you haven't, there's this guy who wishes to skip parts of his life or speed them up and before he knows it, he missed out on everything and wishes he hadn't.

I'm with the journey saying! You do it, it's done, you're happy, you're sad, you learn, you become.

:)

February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM

Ms. Anthropy..I wish we had a couple of do-overs available sometimes..

Jan...isn't it the truth though.. :)

Joe...That sounds like a pretty good idea for a book my friend...

Lisa Marie...I'm trying for that living day to day thing...gonna see how it works :)

AS...Thanks for that comment...Indeed there are some positives that I didn't mention...Nice to be reminded sometimes...

Sarah..I did indeed see Click..and enjoyed it very much..It was a little more sad than I anticipated, but nonetheless I can totally understand his range of emotions...

February 16, 2010 at 2:03 PM

I've always said Hollywood fucked up my life... I guess books did, too!

February 16, 2010 at 6:21 PM

3 feet of snow...lol You think that was only 3 feet? I knew I should have taken a pic before all that snow fell inwards. The drift that evening put the snow near the top of the door before coming inwards!

February 17, 2010 at 10:15 AM

lol..Ian I was actually referring to the first pic I saw that you posted...It just looked about 3 feet or so...I'm glad you guys are ok, we were a little worried when you were absent from here for so long...

February 17, 2010 at 10:46 AM

This post got to me because I read a lot as well, and I know EXACTLY what you mean. I always have these big ideas and most of the time they fall flat because they are unrealistic. It's like you said, irritating.

Damn all those storybook characters for makin us feel so 'normal'!

February 17, 2010 at 12:16 PM

Kristy..that's right we can blame the authors as well as the producers..they are all bastards indeed.

Kato..doesn't it suck? and then you decided to read something more realistic and come to find out that you like the what if better...getting a little irritated just thinking about it again...

February 17, 2010 at 5:01 PM

Post a Comment