This Post Won’t Inspire You Unless You’re…

Two weeks from now your old friend Jack the semi anonymous dad blogger who uses a pen name will step onto a plane and head for the frigid East Coast to spend time with the family that wasn’t smart enough to move somewhere warm.

While I am there I’ll make fun of the silly accents, the DH, jug handles and a variety of other things for no reason other than because I am a Minister of Mishegoss and I am one of the resident meshugehnehs of the West Coast.

That is the sort of narishkeit that some of you can’t get enough of or maybe it is the reason some people stop talking to me. Hell if I know, I am just a storm walker who is looking forward to a 2015 that is better than 2014 was.

Except the thing about that is it is not setting the bar very high, 2015 won’t have to do very much to be better than 2014 was so I think I ought to make it clear I am not just shooting for the moon and the stars.

I am looking to take over the whole damn galaxy and maybe the universe too. It really depends on how things go with my kids, niece and nephews.

Why?

Because running a galaxy is damn hard and a universe is a freaking administrative nightmare. I need to be certain those kids are competent because what I really want to do is be the emperor and let the king, Dukes and Duchesses deal with all of the daily administration.

You hear that Shmata Queen? I am planning ahead.

This Post Won’t Inspire You Unless You’re…

Eleven years into the great blogging odyssey I don’t have to surf the blogosphere to know there are a million posts about how to make this the best year ever.

I thought about trying to inspire you. Thought about writing the sort of post that would make you comment and share all over the blogosphere because that would lead to fame and fortune for me and that is why people blog.

If I told you there is a Schlotzky’s card that needs two more holes punched for me to get a free Cinnabon you might be inspired to go grab one on your own and then after you ate the whole thing you’d be inspired to hit the gym.

Hell, after you ate the whole thing and looked at yourself in the mirror you’d wonder why you listened to the crazy semi anonymous man and I’d say it was because you knew I’d inspire you to become the best you ever.

Some of you might wonder if I am being serious or insouciant. You might scratch your head and ask yourself how you are supposed to take this and I have a response for you.

Bend over and grab your ankles.

No, no, no.

I am kidding.

Really, I am kidding.

Unless you are a Patriots, or Celtics fan in which case you should go bang your head against the wall and drop something heavy on the big toe on your right foot and the pinky toe on your left.

Remember when I said I am going to make 2015 into a better year than 2014?

That Emerson quote above is part of what inspires me. I have shared it with my children more than once because I want them to understand the impact our attitude can have on our daily life.

I worry about them the way any parent worries about their children. I worry because the last chunk of years have been more of a roller coaster ride than I would like and I see how it is impacted them.

But I lack perspective because I am too close.

Overall I think they are fine but there are little things that trouble me, moments where I wonder if things have been harder for them then they have let on and wonder.

The benefit of life experience is having lived long enough to see that the down moments are always followed by up. It is possible I may be worrying more than necessary because of that perspective issue.

But that quote will help them regardless of how they are or are not doing now.

One day I’ll fill them in on more of the details about this time in our lives and they’ll gain a greater appreciation for how I handled things.

I have told them as much as they need to know, filled them in on some details about some of the crazier moments and been relatively honest about money issues.

But they don’t need more than they have heard. They can’t do anything to help in those areas so all it will do is upset them and put them in a position where they worry about things they can’t control.

No upside there.

This year is about trust and faith. Not in the religious sense but in the personal.

Those steel workers didn’t worry about falling off of that beam or at least I don’t think they actively did.

They trusted their balance and ability to work with, around and through whatever challenges they encountered. Doesn’t mean they never encountered crap they couldn’t deal with because it happens but you can’t focus on that.

I have survived every storm I have been through and like Murakami writes I am not the same person I was when I entered but the great contradiction is that in some ways I am more me than I was.

Dance in the fire and you burn away the extraneous crap you don’t need or at least you hope to. I don’t know if I am most of the way to where I want to be but I am certainly much.

If nothing else I see stars and if you pay attention to those you can see you can use them to find your way home. So I figure I am on my way there, got to wander a bit longer but I am almost home again.

Wait, did this piece get serious again.

Fuck, I started out with the intent to generate some more narishkeit and looked what happened. This blogging thing is quite the rush and the journey now isn’t it.

• Saved: Children