If Then…But When…?!

A common theme that seems to have entered around my world lately is the idea of waiting for something to happen or “get done” so that someone can move on with their life. The short story is that, in my experience, it can be a form of procrastination. It’s something that I have certainly been guilty of…but that I feel I have somewhat successfully pushed through for the most part.

The Big Trip…some day…

My former wife was adopted as a child by the Schmidt’s (Jim and Lois), who were old enough to have memories of life shortly after “The Depression” in the US. Having this history in their lives made them extremely conservative financially. While they were never what you might call wealthy, they lived a very comfortable life. One thing I remember in particular, however, was that they were always saving for a rainy day – and also for a big trip…Alaska was mentioned, Europe…an exotic cruise. But whenever you asked them “When?”, they would always have a reason why it couldn’t happen now or soon. They always seemed to be waiting for something to happen or get done before they could even plan much less go on this big trip. One day they were sitting in their matching recliners watching TV when all of a sudden Lois sat straight up as though she just realized something…and then fell back into her chair. She had experienced an aneurysm and passed away.

I Can Fix It Myself!

Recently, the lower ball joint on my 4Runner gave out while I was driving down the road. The upper ball joint was pulled out and of course and I ended up like this…

So then I had to decide some things…should I get this fixed? Who’s going to fix it? When will I get it done? How much is this going to cost me? And I had to truck towed and put it on the curb in front of the house. I secured the truck on a jack stand and decided that I would try to repair it myself while I contemplated getting a new (or newer) car. OF course, without the proper tools for the job, it became a bit of a task. And I slowly was able to take the tire off and break down the lower arm and upper arm and it ONLY took me 4 and a half weeks to do that. And then I went to Mexico, thinking I’ll get some tools and continue to work on it when I get back. And I started to slowly get things done until it was almost the end of March and the car is still not usable and I haven’t gotten a new car. I just wanted to get one more thing done on it, and maybe I can fix it myself. From Christmas until 3 weeks into March…just one more thing. I called a mobile mechanic that Trish referred…and it was back on the road in 3 days.

“It’s Not Going To Start Later”

I suddenly realized then, that year, that life was already happening. I think it’s because my mother was so obsessed with education, and the idea that childhood and adolescence, and well…everything, was about preparing for a life that was going to start later. And I suddenly realized that life wasn’t going to start later, that it’d, you know, it’s starts at “dot” and it happens all the time. At any point you can grasp the reins and start guiding your own destiny. And that was a big revelation to me. It came as quite a shock

Roger Waters – speaking about the times around the making of “Dark Side Of The Moon”

Time

Ultimately, the “sin” and/or pain of procrastination is that time doesn’t wait for all the things that WE are waiting on. Wouldn’t it be great if when we aren’t ready for something we could just call “TIMEOUT” and life would just wait for when we ARE ready…but it doesn’t. You can’t even grab on to time and slow it down. I sometimes even fret about the fact that the time that just passed because you read this last sentence is gone and you’re never going to get it back! If I could only give you back this time because I wrote something that wasn’t worth reading maybe.

I set my watch back one minute every day. That way…when I die…I’ll have a few extra hours left.

Steven Wright