It’s June already

Slow day at work. It dawned on me that it was June already. Where does the time go? We are already on the down hill side of the year. The beginning of the end for 2008.

When I commented on it, a guy I work with who is probably in his 50’s remarked that “When you get older, the time just goes faster and faster.”

It being a slow day at work that of course got me thinking, I am getting older, though my co worker has a good 20 years on me. It struck me as odd that he laments the passage of time. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy, but he’s the type who says that he would never retire, because he knows that he would be bored. What would he do if he didn’t go to work every day? He seems to be one of those types who looks back on his life unfulfilled. My dad does the same. He never talks about college, or when he was younger, and when I bring it up, he gets that 1000 yard stare and if he was still a drinkin’ man, he would ask me to pour him another. I can tell that he feels like he somehow missed something.

So of course, it being a slow day (have I mentioned that?) I started thinking about what I have seen, the good, the bad, and the indifferent, in my short time on this crazy planet we call earth.

The evil empire was replaced by the axis of evil.

Statesmen like Kennedy, Nixon, Regan, replaced by cowboys with fetal alcohol syndrome and daddy issues.

The cold war ended, the Berlin wall came down, the challenger blew up, America was attacked by man and weather.

Video games went from things that would ruin your eyes and rot your brain to things that will make kids into perverts and mass murders.

Ditto for cartoons.

Operating system were delivered on a stack of floppies with a manual thicker than an phone book to pre installed with maybe a pamphlet saying that if you have trouble go to the website.

Noisy slow dial up modems and text only bulletin board systems to always on, high speed news, stocks, and porno on demand.

4 channels and an antenna on the roof who’s reception got knocked out when the weather got bad to satellite 300+ channels of digital picture that gets knocked out when the weather gets bad.

Issues that were solved by a fist fight in the school yard are resolved by drive by shootings

From “Only Dopes use Dope” to everybody Smokes.

Russia, Japan, and America all sworn enemies to all living together, IN SPACE!

School systems designed to prepare you to work in a factory and maybe get a good score on the SAT to schools teaching you to work in a factory and pass the “No child left behind” test.

It kind of goes along with a conversation that I had earlier today with a very good friend. The meat of the conversation came down to that your job is nothing but a means to an end. The real fun in life is just hanging out with the people you love, doing things that you enjoy. It’s an old cliché but no one goes to their death bed wishing that they spent more time at work.

This also reminded me of a list that I made for the same good friend. She asked that for her birthday her friends not buy her anything, but instead make a list of things that they had learned.

Here’s a few of my favorites from my list.

Never take financial advice from a man in an expensive suit.

Figure out what is important, what is really important, and hold it sacred.

Let that which does not matter, truly not matter.

It’s just stuff.

You ain’t shit. But that’s ok, because neither is anyone else.

My penis is my best friend and my worst enemy. Without it I could have been a great man, but only because of it, do I want to become a great man.

Fight if you must. Win if you can. But always, always, cheat.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

It’s not the sand, it’s the journey.

Never underestimate the power of the stonecutter.

To win without fighting is best.

Do or do not. There is no try.

You can do anything for 30 seconds.

Bones heal, chicks dig scars.

Never trust a man who talks too much about how much he makes, how much he wins, or how much he fucks.

Did I mention it was a very slow day at work?

~ by takinitback on June 2, 2008.