Some consolation

My good friend Mark, in Missoula Montana, said something to me that I will never forget. I was, y'know, highly under-employed at the time, like I still am, and I was on my way to a reunion. I was uneasy about going, sure that everybody there would be well, y'know.... "successful" because the non-successful ones probably wouldn't go. I had other powerful emotional reasons to make the long journey back to a place where I used to be, besides just seeing those people or I would not have gone myself to expose my lack of so called worldly "success" in front of them anyway.

Mark said, "hey you know, those successful people would trade places with you in a heartbeat. You look awesome. Most people our age are physically pretty pathetic." I thought about what he said. He had a point.

I was just looking at myself in the mirror the other day. I actually do look pretty goddamn awesome. My body is my #1 asset. I honor it as a creation of my God by keeping it clean inside and out, nourished with good chow, and fit. So it's not just superficial. Oh sure, something usually aches, the knee, the back or what-not, but I weigh what I weighed at 18, I routinely run 7 miles, I can do a full ustrasana, everything is functioning adequately... ya know.

When I went to this reunion, I discovered a curious thing. With one notable exception, the women in the group were no more "successful" than I was, at least not on their own. Some had married money, and some had not. And I must say, every last one of those women was HOT, I'd say they were on a par with myself. The men had not fared so well physically. Some had broadened considerably in girth, and there was evidence that some of the boys habitually drowned their stresses. Some had done well financially, some had not.

I am glad I went to that reunion. We spent the evening swapping stories, and I found that each of these people, with whom I'd shared something 20 years ago, had come along in some way as a human being, and that in that group, so-called success took a back seat to the memories we'd all shared from when we were all young. I wound up being glad I'd splurged and taken the trip down memory lane.
# posted by Nonny Nemo @ 7:49 PM