- …..”a simpler time”. One hears that expression so often—usually in an implicitly demeaning manner—yet it is majorly more a cliché than it is a truism. Times weren’t simpler per se back “whenever”; they were merely different back then. No era is simpler than another. Only people are. Branding an earlier time as “simpler” is, at its essence, a lazy attempt to artificially elevate the present and in the process magnify the problems one is facing today. Can’t do that. That’s a complete cop-out. A lame excuse. There were hordes of problems people had to deal with in earlier times too, and the individuals who inhabited those years possessed the same intellectual resources to deal with said problems—no more, no less—as the people who are alive today. Times are not immanently more complicated; they are just different, featuring a unique, era-sensitive set of problems that each succeeding generation has to grapple with. But do not make the mistake—excuse rather—of suggesting ours is a more complex i.e. frustratingly difficult world than yesterday’s. It isn’t, so that means you’ll just have to return to square one and cast about for another alibi to rationalize your disappointments, failures, and shattered dreams…..
Author: Fred Blahnik
Outfoxed
- …..she was in the process of sharpening her wits as though they were sterling filet knives. After long years of cognitive laziness, circumstance now demanded that she be nimble with her thinking, to be capable of outfoxing another person without that individual ever realizing they had been outfoxed. And that isn’t an easy thing to do, believe me; it defines the zenith of subtlety. If you win a mental contest but the other person instantly recognizes their defeat, that really doesn’t constitute a victory at all. It is a conditional, transient shifting of pieces —more of a Pyrrhic victory, at best. No, a genuine win is when you figuratively steal the shirt off another person’s back, yet that person walks around afterwards all glorified and puffed up and oblivious without once realizing they are buck naked above the waistline…..
Definition of a Stooge
- Religiously follow the pathway (roadmap) leading to happiness! Do what needs to be done NOW, not sometime in the future. The future, remember, is little different than a mirage in the wayward desert—something you dream about incessantly, but minus any evidence that it even exists or ever will. If you are truly banking on the future and feel that you are immanently entitled to generous portions of same as a natural endowment, you are just plain stupid and own no more right to that beguiling province than a hungry bat stripped of its radar flying crazily about in a chandelier showroom.
Talking with Silence
- People communicate as much and as honestly by what they DON’T say as what they do. A failure to “gush” and to provide more than feeble, rudimentary information is a frank indictment of a specific situation or individual. If someone is authentically impressed with a person, place, or dynamic, they will quite willingly let you know with a frothing torrent of words; such constitutes basic human nature. In the stark absence of that type of candidness, however, the impression the individual fails to convey is almost always of the negative variety. You don’t have to be an astute student of human nature in order to accurately “read between the lines” and rightfully interpret taciturnity as silent disapproval. And if you fatuously decide to ignore this unspoken cue, proceed with caution because your back will be fully exposed.
Renters Once and Always
- We’re all just here on Earth as renters; we don’t truly own anything we come in contact with. Human lives are frighteningly transient; the world we leave behind less so. How can you claim ownership over something that will outlast you by millennia, if not longer? The logic doesn’t add up. Human beings are by nature parasites. Do the fleas own the dog? Do the barnacles own the ship? Do the remoras own the shark? Do the lice own your skull? The thought of these paradoxes and others like them is silly and undeserving of intelligent comment. The only thing we genuinely “own” are our flesh-and-blood bodies, yet even those are left behind to rot once we die and our souls take forever leave of their organic captors. A feeble case could be made that we as human beings own the moment, but I believe destiny could present a much stronger argument.
Face the Consequences
- There are always consequences in life no matter where you go or what you do, and no truism is more critical to remember than this one. Life comes with consequences; always has, still does, always will. There are no free lunches and free fucks and free passes to Heaven. Everything comes with a price tag, although that tag oftentimes is not emblazoned on a huge banner fluttering out in the wind for all to see. Quite often the price tag is well concealed and one is required to do some delving in order to determine what the human cost will be for performing an act or pursuing an endeavor. But this investigative work must be done regardless. Learn to accept this basic fact, and your life will “suddenly” become simpler and markedly easier to navigate.
Potential Energy
- A gift only becomes a gift when it is used for the first time. Prior to that point in time, a so-called “gift” is nothing more than an official transfer of a commodity; usage is what confers value to an item. So too with natural talent. If or until a natural gift is utilized, it is nothing more than a latent ability lying dormant just waiting to be ignited by a catalyst—normally the beneficiary’s inner drive—although there is no guarantee such a thing will ever happen; too frequently it doesn’t. In truth, squandered natural abilities are more commonplace than grains of sand on a three-mile-long ocean beach. The fact someone is born with immense talent does not mean that talent will ever be realized. Potential does not equal fruition. Fire requires a match to ignite it, and minus that match oxidation and the phenomenal power contained therein will never occur; it will forever remain just so much untapped potential energy.
Move!!!
- …..what are you waiting for exactly?!?! Is there a better time to do what obviously needs to be done?!?! Huh?!?! Well…..is there?!?! I think not too!!!!! So get your ass in gear right this minute and do what needs to be done!!! Enough already with the goddamned all-day procrastinating!! That important job is waiting for you and, trust me, time by nature is NOT a very patient entity! Time does not stop moving simply because you do. Hence just go and do the work now and get it over with, lest someone else or—more likely—fate intervenes and ultimately denies you the opportunity. Yes, distilled down to its barest essence, that is actually what this whole fucking thing inherently represents: An opportunity, and if you don’t grab that elaborately disguised opportunity by the horns right now and wrestle it to the ground and pin its shoulders to the mat you will then have a lot of explaining to do to Someone far greater than myself or your exasperated friends and family members…..
The Folly of Permanence
- Permanence doesn’t exist. Doesn’t. Never has. Never will. The concept of permanence is impossible. Nothing lasts forever. Not we humans, not the Earth we live on, not our sun, not our galaxy, and not our universe either. Certainly not the batch of dreams we hatched and pursuantly incubated when we were only knee-high to a grasshopper and still fervently believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the benevolence of government and the intrinsic equality of all human beings. In terms of theory, permanence and infinity belong in that same conversation, in the sense neither can be understood or logically explained with this feeble entity that passes for human intellect. On metaphysically complex issues such as those referenced, we of the Homo sapiens species can only speculate and make unsupported guesses, rendering us little different than the yak, the ostrich, and the ring-tailed lemur.
Learning Curve
- There is a learning curve associated with EVERYTHING in life. No shortcuts. No dazzling end-arounds. No stunning pole vaults. No warp speed time obliterators. No catapaulting over the gathered masses. No unobstructed pathway to the finish line. No sirreeee, there is a learning curve for EVERYTHING you encounter or will ever encounter in life, and the sooner you accept this fundamental truism when starting a new endeavor, the more satisfied and better grounded you will be. Please understand and commit to memory this salient truth, Readers: Proficiency and expertise do not happen purely by accident; you habitually and with only rare exceptions have to pay a steep premium in the guise of sweat equity and a significant time commitment in order to reach those enviable objectives! Anyone who insists otherwise and touts shortcuts to the top is a dullard of colossal dimensions.
Fred's Soapbox 