"I've Come To Appreciate"

Is it possible to fritter away an unlimited resource? Eyebrows have been raised.

Well, technically no. But Fear has been known to blind us. It can make us live as though The End Is Nigh. Hypochondria, and I've had mild outbreaks, causes us to focus on the unknown "maybes" to the point where we spend our time thinking only of dark, negative outcomes. And life ceases to be full of possibilities but becomes a rain-soaked wait for the final bus.

Life isn't limitless of course. But imagine if it was. Imagine if we KNEW it was. Imagine the focus we could give to each and every day IF we knew that we had all the time in the world. That, of course, was the theme of the film Groundhog Day in which Bill Murray's character Phil Connors, faced with endless repeats of the same 24 hours, finally learns to use them wisely.

But it could have gone another way. For a while it did. For a while Connor was gradually overcome with a fear of Eternity, leading to  hopeless despair, leading to him fruitlessly trying to take his own life. Fear leads to frittering. Albeit pointless frittering in the presence of an unlimited resource.

So Phil Connor kept waking up. But the trouble (or troulbe, as it is sometimes known) that an eternal future caused him,  gradually turned into potential. Potential for a new start, a new life, a new day. Potential to focus COMPLETELY on one thing at a time. And he ended up, among other things, making some beautiful ice sculptures, winning the love of a lovely lady...

...and becoming a good human being.

What a way to live. As though we were always going to wake up tomorrow. A way of being. Hopeful, grateful, concentrated living replacing the Fearful Fritter.

Life as though The End had been obliterated.


The line "I've come to appreciate" is from my unreleased song Great Escape. Released songs can be found at Fee Comes Fourth.

"It's Time To Make Your Great Escape" Part 2

Well, sequels are usually rubbish. But let's try anyway.

If you were reading yesterday I was talking about the fact that I've been, I mean become, committed. Oh yes. Strait Jackets and everything.

Committing to something involves passing the point of no return. If it turns out rubbish then...well, then it's too late. You've said it. You've done it. Fail!

Except I don't see it like that..

I write things, or say things that contain opinions about life, the universe and everything. And quite often I find that I change my mind. I'm sure I'm the only person in the whole of the universe that has experienced that phenomenon! But, I change my mind a lot.  I'm on a tentative search for Truth. And playing with words...in songs, in conversations, in blogs...is possible the biggest part of my own Truth Voyage kitbag. So I find that I say things which seem like a good stab at something that is true, and then, on reflection, decide that, in fact it was not so.

If you're still with me you may know that an important part of the Scientific Method (as I understand it, and I am no Scientist) is to RULE STUFF OUT. Ruling stuff out is an important part of getting to find out what stuff is in.

As I said, I'm not a Scientist. But I try to be a scientist. We can all be scientists. Little children are the best at it. Asking questions, questions that sound daft to us, and then readjusting their world view based on the answers they come up with. (I would like to have introduced a little child/parent conversational anecdote at this point. I've heard a million examples. But I never write anything useful down like a good reporter would and I can only remember "happenings" for a maximum of 24 hours. And that's pushing it.)

So I write songs, and I talk, and bloggity blog, to ask questions of life. Lost in my own Little Scientist Groundhog Day. To discover, to thrive, or simply to survive. And sometimes I wish I could use some of the tactics that other people use. Because the grass is always greener on the other fella's patch. Or simply not bother at all and live in joyful anticipation of the next episode of Holly Oaks. Why not? I'm not here to judge other peoples life journeys.

But there is, for me, no escape from this path. And it is a path. We've all got a path.

And now I'm off to meditate on a piece of string. It's just an experiment.



The line "It's time to make your great escape" is still from  my nameless, unreleased song.