"The older I get, the more I realize we have very limited time here and you don't have to blindly follow along with other people's bullshit. So much of life is other people telling you what to think and do but it requires your buy-in. You don't have to do that. Have a good Monday."
This quote succinctly greeted me this morning, shortly after I woke up, 50 years old. 50 sounds old. It feels old. It's a lot different than 30 or 40. It means that not only are you old, but everyone else is old, as well. I'm really no different than I was a few weeks or a few months ago. I've basically been 50 for a couple years now, at least in my head, preparing for the day when I, Bowie, Elvis, and Bruce Sutter all gain one more year of immortality. I had today off, which was nice. Had a pretty average morning--a couple-three cups of coffee, checked the phone, played Wordle, listened to "Powerage", and prepared mentally and physically for my oldest day yet. Then had a cupcake and danced with the kids to "Candles on the Cake". Got a couple more gifts, which is pretty special when you're an old man. One being a sans children trip to New Orleans with my wife. We celebrated the bday Saturday night with friends and whisk(e)y, so today was to be chill. And it has been. But although I've been mentally prepping for this day for quite a while now, I've been enveloped with a sense of wisdom. And It's quite possibly stemmed from this glorious quote that I typed out to start this blog post. Scroll up and read it again. I've lived 50 years. Fuck you. That's what I get from the quote. That's wisdom. From a young age--as far back as I can remember--I've struggled with people telling me what to do and how to think, to my detriment even. When you're young, though, you need that shit to a point--some guidance. I struggled with religion and politics, and which way I'm supposed to lean and what I believe in and if I don't all hell will break loose, literalIy in some respects. I've had two million jobs and I've struggled with every single one of them (until recently), dealing mentally with someone else telling me what to do and how to do it, seeing as how working a job takes up roughly 76% of your existence. And one thing that I've learned over the decades in dealing with the mental anguish of coexisting with humans...is that people are fucking idiots. Everyone thinks they know. The highly religious types that I grew up around in the Bible Belt of Southwest Missouri all know. They know that Assembly of God is the way to go...or you have to be Baptist or you're going to hell...or Lutheran or Catholic is what God wants from you. Faith and belief are good, I'm not taking that away. But the unfun part of growing up with all that is the constant judging. If you want to be religious, by all means do so. Faith is powerful. But don't look down on folks that don't see eye to eye with you spiritually. That happened quite a bit growing up, especially with parents, which is unfortunate. The one thing that I'm 100% certain of and comfortable with...I don't know. Nobody does. So please don't act like you do. We don't have a ton more time here to try and figure things out--life flies by, man. And let's face it, figuring things out just ain't going to happen. People have been trying to figure out why we're here, what our purpose is, what we need to do to partake in an afterlife, what the rules are, and how to coexist with one another for a pretty fucking long time now. I don't think it's meant for us to know. And I know I'm not going to listen to another person tell me what the answers are. "Buy in." You have to buy in to the culture. You have to buy in to the product. Buy in to the party. If you buy into this way of thinking, then you'll be more successful and secure. Please, buy in to this way of life, these precise rules, and this group of people, and all will be well. I'm not buying what you're selling. If I'm lucky, I've got another 20-30 years left in me. I'm at least a decade over the hill. So why bother with nonsense? Don't make no sense, man. For the next 20-30 years, I plan on mixing together a comfortable balance of laughter, adventure, libation, fresh air, music, gratefulness, growth, love, and kicking ass. That's what I'm buying into. And you can't tell me not to. I'm Matt Todd. (above quote borrowed from Ricky Cobb, aka "Super 70s Sports" on Xwitter) .
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am Earl. Archives
May 2024
|