Fuzzy Details?

It was a wet morning. I was taking my favorite 4x4 out for a drive.  It was a 1999 Limited Toyota 4Runner with every bell and whistle you can imagine.  I find myself still missing it today.  The rain was pouring down and in Arizona, that is unique.  I had just moved from New Mexico and unfortunately I was not used to such deluges.  As I entered an off ramp, I felt distinctly that my back tires had lost just slight bit of traction. It was then that I remembered that I had forgotten to lock the rear differential by activating the button on the dash.  If it was activated, I am sure that I would still be driving my 4Runner today.  Anyway, as my rear tires lost their traction, I corrected just a bit, and suddenly my rear tires swung violently in the opposite direction.  The rear of my truck slammed the concrete barrier and shot straight toward the opposite side towards a 40-50 foot drop off that was only cordoned by a single metal guard rail.  That guard rail would be put to the ultimate test that day to verify if it was capable of stopping a 2 ton out of control vehicle. I closed my eyes, said a prayer and waited.  All I felt and heard then was the pop of glass and steel as the vehicle tumbled in a direction that I didn't know.  When the vehicle came to a stop, there I was safe and sound, altogether in one piece.  That day changed my life.  I am much more cautious on the exit ramps I travel, almost to a point where I find myself slowing down too much.  Many people today encourage me to let that day become a blur in my mind so I can get over my newly found phobia, but that is exactly what prompted today’s question.  How will you remember life?

Life, if you are an adult, is a much too fast and fleeting anomaly that most of us can’t even begin to comprehend the full meaning of.  People die young, some die old.  Some are taken from us in tragedy and others live on despite their maniacal actions.  In this brief moment we have, we sincerely try to understand the full scope of the life we have been given, only at times to feel a sense of being much too overwhelmed. 

When we boil it down, life can be skipped over like a blur, or it can be fully lived out in detail.  I don’t always want to remember the foolish things I did.  They serve as a reminder of how crazy my life was and I’ll admit, sometimes still is.  But it’s in those details where I find that I truly can see the amazing journey I am on, and also where I am headed. 

When we live life merely in order to get past the day, many of the important lessons I feel we are supposed to learn get washed away.  It is only in those details where we will ultimately find the answers to our questions of, “Why?”

In the meantime, let me encourage you to enjoy the details without regret.  I promise you will fall a few times, lose control a few other times, and sometimes even behave badly, but treasure them.  They are golden moments that move you forward. 

 There will always be Weddings and Funerals, Birthdays and Anniversaries; but it is how we choose to remember them that give our life meaning and purpose. 

I am reminded of the now classic movie “Life is Beautiful.” Ironically, it is a movie about the Holocaust.  What makes this tale so unique is in the way the main character chooses to experience each of the traumatic experiences that are unfolding around him. That’s the answer. Our life will ultimately be what we choose it to be.  Positive or Negative. 

There is no time machine, there is no 2^nd chance, and in no way will we ever be able to exchange our life for that of someone else.  This is our one shot, live it out loud in fine detail, just like it was meant to be! 

-Lou   

The Danger in Being a Sheep.

I saw the other day how a commentator was observing that we have become a nation that heavily follows trends; trends that dictate what we watch, how we dress, the foods we eat and even the way we think.   As a rebel, many times I have turned the opposite way of the trends simply because I don’t like to follow.  Sometimes that has worked in my favor, while at other times being the trailblazer takes a lot of determination, self-will, and perseverance simply because I have experienced that there are not many who will pat you on the back as you blaze that trail in your own unique direction.  I think what scares me the most is that trends kill imagination.  Trends disqualify any original ideas from taking root, and group otherwise great and innovative concepts into a melting pot of less quality but wholly accepted beliefs.  There is a danger in following these trends in a way that I don’t think we will be able to fully understand until those habits have given birth to fully grown and complex issues that can’t be easily undone. 

It is easy to see that our world right now is in a heightened state of conflict.  Everywhere you look, people are debating, rebelling, fighting, or protesting.  As we approach the elections, there is a sense of political heat that no one in the U.S. is able to escape no matter how much they try to remain oblivious to what’s happening around them.  What fuels these armies of protestors and others involved in the conflict is at the root, trends. A trend that they first once believed as a good idea that gave birth to a way of thinking, that grew finally into an all-out belief system where the mindset now is that others with a different opinion do no count, or do not matter. 

I do believe that as trivial as we want to make trends in the world around us, it does shape how we view and live everyday.  On the most controversial of topics, abortion, gay rights, and finances, I think that as people who are more heavily invested in trends than in caring about people disqualify themselves of helping anyone simply because they can not fathom coming along side a person who may have a differing opinion.  That is the danger in being a sheep.  One who follows, even if it nullifies helping, caring or encouraging our fellow man. 

If more of us chose to bravely take the “road less traveled” and cared more about people than policy, would our world look a bit different?

I feel that I will always be a rebel, but I want to do so, not like James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause, but a rebel for all the right reasons in the hopes that the infestation of people that in a sense, play out their lives with a certain sense of entitlement, or self-righteousness, can finally take a backseat in lieu of genuine care of other people no matter their past, their beliefs, or actions.  Who knows? Maybe one day, we can once again return to and become the United States of America.