Sometimes, once in a blue moon, life offers me a powerful upgrade to my normal speed. It tends to be something like driving 85MPH, rather than 55. Or maybe like having blazing fast internet speed or a successful run on the craps tables.
Well, actually, nothing went wrong this week. I taught AP English/Drama this past Monday, then got in my new car and drove 5+ hours to Salt Lake City to get ready for a big meeting with a Managing Director of a well-established radio station. Exactly one hour later, my business partner and I knew that we were "on the way". For the first time in my life, I found complete success in making "the pitch" in anything outside of education, and hitting a home run. But, that was just the beginning.
Buying the perfect gifts for family, self and friends, having the perfect meals at perfect restaurants for the occasion - this was just the beginning. Finding the perfect office space for this new start-up venture, finding the perfect house to rent (as long as I find 3 others to share the 4 bedroom!), and then, finishing off the three days seeing Sessions at the Broadway theatre downtown SLC, and then right into a super clear "vision" of what my life was about (usually, these are reserved for places like the Sacred Grove upstate NY, not on the streets of Salt Lake). Yes, even the drive back was filled with stunningly clear conversations on the blue-tooth. I guess I should ask if anyone else has these?!
It has come time for me to understand that I am going from live to on-line to on-the-air. That is how my teaching will expand. This is how I will stay interesting for the years to come. This is what the joy of life seems to be about. And then to share it with everyone I would meet, from perfect strangers in the Lion House (Brigham Young's home) to strangers in a Rexburg (ID) organic foods store.
Building a bilingual radio station is going to be a blast. Building a more perfect life with more challenges, more successes seems to be the best thing I could have been given. It will impact Ben's life, my children's life, and most of all, my own life. What I have learned more than anything from this week is that when things start lining up really really well, just go with the flow, even if it is a raging river. Fly like the wind, even if it won't last so long. And take on the descent, the end of the ride because one must learn to exit these "upgrades to life" just as well as the journey on them.
Even though many would think I have much to say about the Connecticut tragedy, I have saved my thoughts for the NYTimes and SLTrib comments section. I simply wrote this:
I fear that we all may be quick to jump at gun control (better: responsibility?) for a simple answer to a profound tragedy. May I suggest that we wait for further word on whether or not the young man who did this horrific act was on some type of anti-depressant, perhaps an anti-anxiety medication. Why? Because some of us have become very skeptical, to say the least, about Big Pharma's contribution to the supposed benefits of life in the post-modern age.
Certainly, we are all aware these last two decades of the lengthy warnings on TV ads regarding so many new medications. What we simply do NOT know are possible side effects that did not become apparent during the required time of drug testing or that did not become sufficient in number during the same period of time to warrant any stoppage on the path towards full approval by the powers that be.
It has come time for our society to have not only a full discussion regarding gun responsibility but also a much greater scrutiny of our dearly beloved drug companies as well. Then, we might come to arrive at a greater truth.
And with that, I'll leave my readers with the simple quote I saw tonight on the wall of a senior citizen's home here in Jackson tonight. "LIFE is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving with a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather to SKID in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: WOW!. . . WHAT A RIDE!".
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