Monday Musings

PILING: Up. To-Do's, that is. Ya ever have one of those days or moments where, suddenly, the weight of the world feels heaped on your shoulders? Gotta caulk the windows. Gotta clean and seal the deck in my yard. Gotta put stuff away for winter. Gotta mow the lawn and probably start raking leaves, pretty soon. Gotta overseed in light of all this wet, damp weather. Gotta write 2,000 words about The Amazing Race. Gotta probably write an article about Heroes, tonight, and also Mad Men. And, I love Chuck, not to write about, just to watch and enjoy. Gotta keep running spunkybean, too. Gotta run 4 or 6 miles as part of my "long run" leading up to this Sunday's triathlon. Gotta spend some time with my kids ...and wife. Maybe call a friend or something. Oh, and not to mention there's that little thing called "work" or "employment" that kinda takes up some of my day. Then I'd like to volunteer for something involving my children's schools or their sports teams. And there's clothes to iron. And my brake lights don't work, nor does most of the electrical systems in my car and all I have to do is take it back to the mechanic, but I haven't done that. So I drive around worried I'll (a) get rear-ended or (b) get a ticket because my brake lights don't work. I'd like to work on that brilliant screenplay. I'd like to write/finish those two spec scripts and reconnect with the two Hollywood writers who were kind enough to get back to me regarding making a living writing. And that radio show ...Mel Robbins. Her patient producer is still keeping in touch with me hoping I'll submit more 'bits' and 'segments.' I haven't.

DIGRESSING: It's not to complain, really. Really. I'm not. This is all of my own doing. I just hope I'm not alone. It's like I can't be happy until I'm neglecting something or letting someone down. It's a pattern. My Kindergartener is learning about "patterns" (her's are shape-shape-shape or color-color-color patterns, mine are behavioral). My behavior "pattern" seems to be to commit to a million things because I like being busy and hate saying, "no", but then always only half-achieving things or doing half-ass jobs. Keep in mind, I know who reads this blog and who will recognize this entry, kinda, as an apology ...or avoidance ...or something. But also keep in mind, I write this blog. Sometimes you'll get random, somewhat humorous thoughts. Sometimes you'll get shameless self-promotion, triathlong training updates, or updates as to the progress of my washboard abs. But sometimes, you'll just get me complaining about this, that, or the other thing.

HIGHLIGHTING: The great things. Now that I'm done crying on your shoulder. Interestingly enough, on Friday, while driving around in my car at lunchtime crying and feeling sorry for myself (a man can weep openly, and there's nothing wrong with that), I tuned into Dennis Prager's show and his "Happiness Hour." Typically, he's a conservative talking head and difficult to swallow, but on Fridays he devotes his show to callers and to the topics that led me to appreciate him in the first place. His book, Think a Second Time, literally (seriously, I'm not making this up) fell off a book shelf and landed on my foot about 10 years ago. So, for $1.50, I bought it and was rivetted from the beginning. The book struck me as a modern day lesson in philosophy - which I was really into at the time. I liked it so much, I looked into Dennis's other offerings and enjoyed his book, Happiness Is A Serious Problem, even more. Loved it so much, I read it twice. Obviously, based on the early part of this blog entry, I need to read it a third time.

Point? Yes. Friday's show ...Dennis was talking about his self-coined "Missing Tile Syndrome." It's lesson is thus ...we tend to look at something beautiful and then oft focus on only the small flaws. Or, imagine a fully tiled bathroom or floor, or a tiled piece of artwork. Instead of focusing on the overall beauty or finished product, all we see is that missing tile. The more beautiful the overall tile project is, the more we focus on the missing tile.

So, today ...I'm going to focus on the 'missing tiles', but only to fix them. But also, I'm going to dwell on the rest of the tiles ...perfectly in place, exactly where I want them. I hope you do the same.

I promise ...tomorrow ...I'll post an old journal entry, and those always have tended to be nonsense.