The Choice
There's a story of a man who was chased off a tall cliff by some wild animals. Let's call them tigers. It might have been tigers. I remember it as being tigers. But I don't know much about tigers, so I don't know if tigers would do this or live in places where there are tall cliffs and such; but I do know enough about the internet to know that if I just go ahead and say it was tigers without looking my facts up, I will lose points for it because someone will know, and will point it out to me, and then there will be a big flame war and tears, and besides, I don't have the points to lose. So let's just say it was wild animals, that may or may not have been tigers.
Anyway, dude is being chased by wild-animals-which-may-or-may-not-be-tigers, who want to eat him, and he comes to a tall cliff. As he is scrabbling down it, he notices that there are sharp rocks down below, and he's high up, so if he jumps, he'll still die. Just as the tigers wild-animals-which-may-or-may-not-be-tigers start coming over the top of the cliff, chasing him (OK, OK, maybe they weren't tigers. Maybe they were bears. Or Mountain Goats. Not that Mountain Goats would chase a dude and want to eat him; at least, I don't think so. They'd be very vicious Mountain Goats if they did.) So the wild-animals-that-may-or-may-not-be-tigers-and-may-or-may-not-be-bears-and-may-or-may-not-be-mountain-goats-and-would-be-pretty-viscious-mountain-goats-if-they-were-but-whoever-they-are-they-can-chase-and-climb-down-cliffs-and-they-really-really-want-to-eat-this-dude were coming over the cliffs, and dude gets his clothes caught on a small branch or twig protruding from the cliff face at the same time as his foot finds a loose stone and sends a small avalanche down below him. So, rocks below, losing his footing, quite high up, animals beiginning their descent above, clothing entangled in a branch, and dude reckons he has about five seconds before the branch stops bearing his weight and snaps off, ripping his clothing and therefore likely to get his chest all scratched by the rocks, on his way down to the rocks at the bottom, and he can't stay where he is because of the beasts. As he's hanging by a thread, dude notices that just within his arm's reach is a single strawberry growing on a single stalk protruding from the cliff face, which he then picks and eats.
And that's surprising, often.
To pause and eat the strawberry when it's offered, or, in the more common parlance, to stop and smell the roses. There are many books and songs and films and other art forms about how important these pauses are. It's a lesson I intrinsically know, and I always have stopped to smell the roses, or do a cartwheel in the fields, or to have a hopping race with myself, or something along those lines that I haven't thought of yet. I love this aspect of myself, and it's one of the reasons that I am generally a happy person and rich in all the things that money can't buy.
What I am not, however, is rich in all the things that money can buy -- or that could buy me some money. I'm almost a full decade behind my peers in terms of life position. I've squandered too much of my time and am only just now learning the lessons of genuine hard work. I've given up too easily, over and over and over, because smelling the roses was easier than persevering, and I have nothing to show for it. This is something that I'm starting to change, but I'm learning that I can't have it both ways, always; right now, I am struggling to know which side to choose.
Anyway, dude is being chased by wild-animals-which-may-or-may-not-be-tigers, who want to eat him, and he comes to a tall cliff. As he is scrabbling down it, he notices that there are sharp rocks down below, and he's high up, so if he jumps, he'll still die. Just as the tigers wild-animals-which-may-or-may-not-be-tigers start coming over the top of the cliff, chasing him (OK, OK, maybe they weren't tigers. Maybe they were bears. Or Mountain Goats. Not that Mountain Goats would chase a dude and want to eat him; at least, I don't think so. They'd be very vicious Mountain Goats if they did.) So the wild-animals-that-may-or-may-not-be-tigers-and-may-or-may-not-be-bears-and-may-or-may-not-be-mountain-goats-and-would-be-pretty-viscious-mountain-goats-if-they-were-but-whoever-they-are-they-can-chase-and-climb-down-cliffs-and-they-really-really-want-to-eat-this-dude were coming over the cliffs, and dude gets his clothes caught on a small branch or twig protruding from the cliff face at the same time as his foot finds a loose stone and sends a small avalanche down below him. So, rocks below, losing his footing, quite high up, animals beiginning their descent above, clothing entangled in a branch, and dude reckons he has about five seconds before the branch stops bearing his weight and snaps off, ripping his clothing and therefore likely to get his chest all scratched by the rocks, on his way down to the rocks at the bottom, and he can't stay where he is because of the beasts. As he's hanging by a thread, dude notices that just within his arm's reach is a single strawberry growing on a single stalk protruding from the cliff face, which he then picks and eats.
And that's surprising, often.
To pause and eat the strawberry when it's offered, or, in the more common parlance, to stop and smell the roses. There are many books and songs and films and other art forms about how important these pauses are. It's a lesson I intrinsically know, and I always have stopped to smell the roses, or do a cartwheel in the fields, or to have a hopping race with myself, or something along those lines that I haven't thought of yet. I love this aspect of myself, and it's one of the reasons that I am generally a happy person and rich in all the things that money can't buy.
What I am not, however, is rich in all the things that money can buy -- or that could buy me some money. I'm almost a full decade behind my peers in terms of life position. I've squandered too much of my time and am only just now learning the lessons of genuine hard work. I've given up too easily, over and over and over, because smelling the roses was easier than persevering, and I have nothing to show for it. This is something that I'm starting to change, but I'm learning that I can't have it both ways, always; right now, I am struggling to know which side to choose.