A Note on Turning 40
1. I have reached the final stage of Curmudgeon that I've been working on for the past 39 years and take on the title Grand Master Curmudgeon.
2. I am officially 'mature' now, so the next 40 years will be about slowly removing the childish things from my life. If I plan this correctly, I will give up my last toy, the first one I ever received, called The Mortal Coil (tm) as I give up my last breath.
3. I will no longer suffer fools lightly. Few will notice a big change in behavior here, but before I was just being rude and an ass, now I'm being wise and impatient - think Yoda vs. Tom Cruise from Cocktail/Alec Baldwin from Glenn Garry Glenn Ross/Ben Affleck in pretty much any movie he's ever been in.
4. I have learned life is like making pie crust. You can study and analyze it all you want but you won't start making good pie crust until you failed a few dozen times. I figure I have about two more failures before things start turning out properly flakey.
5. I've had 40 years of giving and hearing petty judgment regarding creative efforts that I now reserve the right to heap scorn on such criticism. I'll accept people's opinions and tastes, but not people's broad sweeping generalizations. Hipsters, you are put on notice.
6. Life is too short to fight battles you cannot win. Martial resources, energy, and focus on the things that can be changed with those resources, energy, and focus.
7. Along the way, we either decide that the rules of the world around us are fluid or rigid. As much as it pains me to say this, everything is fluid, there is no reality. The spoon is not real.
8. We are always, without exception, the protagonist of our own story. The real choice is whether we are the comedic hero, the tragic hero, or the anti-hero.
9. Each game of chess means there's one less variation left to be played.
10. Some people are born to greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them, and everyone else can struggle each day just to do a little better than the day before. Do better, be better.
2. I am officially 'mature' now, so the next 40 years will be about slowly removing the childish things from my life. If I plan this correctly, I will give up my last toy, the first one I ever received, called The Mortal Coil (tm) as I give up my last breath.
3. I will no longer suffer fools lightly. Few will notice a big change in behavior here, but before I was just being rude and an ass, now I'm being wise and impatient - think Yoda vs. Tom Cruise from Cocktail/Alec Baldwin from Glenn Garry Glenn Ross/Ben Affleck in pretty much any movie he's ever been in.
4. I have learned life is like making pie crust. You can study and analyze it all you want but you won't start making good pie crust until you failed a few dozen times. I figure I have about two more failures before things start turning out properly flakey.
5. I've had 40 years of giving and hearing petty judgment regarding creative efforts that I now reserve the right to heap scorn on such criticism. I'll accept people's opinions and tastes, but not people's broad sweeping generalizations. Hipsters, you are put on notice.
6. Life is too short to fight battles you cannot win. Martial resources, energy, and focus on the things that can be changed with those resources, energy, and focus.
7. Along the way, we either decide that the rules of the world around us are fluid or rigid. As much as it pains me to say this, everything is fluid, there is no reality. The spoon is not real.
8. We are always, without exception, the protagonist of our own story. The real choice is whether we are the comedic hero, the tragic hero, or the anti-hero.
9. Each game of chess means there's one less variation left to be played.
10. Some people are born to greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them, and everyone else can struggle each day just to do a little better than the day before. Do better, be better.