Two days ago I stopped by the Target off of Glade and tried to remember how long it had been since DoubleDave’s pizza had gone out of business in the shopping center across the street.
I was on my way back from a meeting in Fort Worth and hadn’t intended to stop but someone kept blowing up my work phone so I figured I ought to take a minute to find out what was so important.
There was nothing of paramount importance in figuring out when they had shut the place down but sometimes when I am engaged in solving complex issues I stumble upon walls.
I have learned one of the best tools I have for figuring out solutions is to stop pounding my head upon the concrete. So I intentionally focus on a memory that has nothing to do with whatever I have been working on.
That mental break often yields dividends and I find perspective and a different way of approaching whatever it was that I had been working on.
Two days later I can say I think it mostly worked, mostly being the operative word in that I need to give my solution another couple of days of usage to confirm it is not going to break.
Ok Ralphie Boy
It is fair to say I am in a particular sort of mood now, I blame it on what I referred to as Doing The Work over here.
That’s the thing about lying on the old therapist’s couch, you stir things up and some of those things are the sort that you don’t always have interest in revisiting.
Some of those have been forgotten or stuffed inside the closet intentionally so when you bring them out you find out whether they still have sharp edges and barbs.
Sometimes you discover you have worn it down and there is nothing there and sometimes you discover that you just ripped off the scab on something you thought was healed.
Anyhoo, today reminded me there are some things for which there is never a good time. There are things to attend to do that cannot be put off solely because the time isn’t good because it won’t ever be.
So you have to decide when is the best of the bad times in which to conduct those conversations because you cannot progress without having them.
It is not mitigated by saying “you’ll survive” or “you’re not the only one who has done this” either. Or at least it isn’t in my world.
I have no more interest in hearing that than being told at a funeral that “G-d has a plan.”
Someone said that my father’s funeral and I responded with “fuck that, it is gibberish to me” to which I followed up with “I appreciate your kind words sympathy.”
I really did appreciate it, but I had just finished shoveling the last bit of dirt onto my father’s grave and had no patience left.
And yeah, if you are wondering, a group of us filled in Dad’s grave. It was the last kindness I could offer while his body was still here.
Though I can add he and I spoke about whether his neshama, his soul would stick around or depart as well as whether such as thing is/was real.
Anyhoo, I am focused on doing the work and making some big changes. I have had enough of some things and can’t waste time on trying to calculate what will or won’t happen.
Change happens and we make the best of it while doing our best to control our destiny however we can.
Palate Cleanser
I recorded the audio post below when I lived in my apartment in Fort Worth in 2013. Consider it a palate cleanser, a change from the serious to the less so.
No one has asked me about how to cancel their subscription to the blog in quite some time but if they did I might revisit the idea about implementing cancellation fees.
Doctors get away with charging a fee to patients who don’t show up and multiple businesses tell you that you have to give notice to cancel.
So why not bring about a blog cancellation fee? It is an easy way to monetize, especially if people pay.
The whole thing is so damn silly and funny to me. Hell, I laugh my way through the thing and FWIW, more than a few people left positive comments about that.
Given the craziness of time and place I am big on laughter, can’t get enough of it.
And yeah, the don’t bite, it is not a hot dog is tied to it but I don’t remember if that made the cut or not. Might have to make a new one.
Leave a Reply