[Musings] Someday, when I grow up...

To quote T.S. Elliott, "...I shall wear my trousers rolled..."

I don't know where I am going with this post. Merely seeing where my mind goes when I let it wander.

Life, as a journey, not a destination.

An eccentric person at a discussion I was once in said that he was "...over the rainbow man! I'm speaking to you from the destination!", he said some other things as well as had a fetish for purple. At the time I thought "holy shit, this guy is nuts." And he was, but this phrase has stuck to me. A meme, bouncing around in my mind.

In an episode of 'Dr. Who' (the exact episode name escapes me, but the Doctor was played by Tom Baker) the character of the Doctor said, "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. BUT! It is not necessarily the most interesting."

Yeah, I can dig that.

When I was younger (mind you I am not really that old) I believed that growing up would be the proverbial 'it' (as in shiz-nit). But now that I am, by legal definitions at least, 'grown up' I've learned to value a few things I never thought of as a child. The 'shiz-n' is still there, but the 'it' is different. For example:

- the warmth of a cat, slightly purring while napping in your lap
- the personality of fish (koi mainly) and their like of watching TV
- loyal friends
- a good cup of coffee
- a shitty cup of coffee drank among friends engaged in good conversation
- the last 30 seconds before the alarm goes off

I thought 21 would be a magic age. It was, but not how I expected it. I did go to a bar on my birthday, but it was a small dive in rural MN called 'The TNT Bar.' It was the kind of bar that I image you would expect to see in a small town. It was never really busy, its clientele were locals, a few of whom were alcoholics. It had a jukebox that was also a karoake machine. My dad took me there. The beer selection was 'Pabst Blue Ribbon', 'Grain Belt Premium', 'Budweiser', or 'Coors'. Hard liquor was simply a shot of Jack Daniels or Yukon Jack. I am not going to sugar coat this, the place was shit-hole. It was smoky and dimly lit. But I didn't care, what I remember most about that was being there with my father. Now my father does not really drink, nor is he the bar going type. We went to the TNT because it was close to our house (mind you we lived in the country, it was pretty much 20 miles to anywhere). He was just happy to be the first one to buy his son a drink.

Fast forward a few years to my Bachelor Party. It wasn't at a strip club like I kind of thought it would be (or perhaps was conditioned to believe from TV), instead it was around a campfire with a case of beer (Pig's Eye Ice, my tastes were simpler then as was my palate), my best friend, my cousin, and my father. We sat around the fire and told stories and reminisced until 3am.

Anyways I guess what I am getting at is, to quote another movie, "Life is like a box of chocolates." You never know what you are going to get, and some people can't open the box.

In closing I leave you with something from 'Conan the Barbarian', more words of wisdom about life.

chieftain: "Conan! What is best in life?"
Conan (in a thick Austrian accent): "To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of de vemen."

Eh, fuck it.