January 9, 2005

• Captain of Your Life

  Sometimes I just have to sit and scratch my head, at all my old high school classmates who ended up in places and situations that make them unhappy.

  I don't know, but when someone tells me how jealous they are of my life, and make it sound as if I just got supremely lucky, I don't know that this person will ever make it in life. They will always find a reason to claim failure, or they look for someone to blame for the mess they're in. And a result, they never self-examine, and they will never change what got them there in the first place.

  Few things I've ever done have been easy, and perhaps only I know that. I always ended up taking the hard route, and not always by choice.

  When I give my friends advice, they scoff and say I'm "silly."

  But if I'm silly, at least I'm happy, and I'm where I want to be. There's only so much sympathy I can have for people who ignore my advice. It's too painful to watch people make the same mistakes I've made, by not listening to me (and others who give the same advice).

  Sometimes I just have to ignore old friends who have repeated troubles -- almost always of the relationship or financial kind -- not because I don't care, but because there really isn't much I can do. Everyone is the captain of their own life, and I'm busy manning my own ship. I can't decide for someone else to which port they want to sail, nor can I steer their ship from mine. I would hope no one would want someone else to steer their lives at all!

  There are always hurricanes that blow you off course. So what? You ride out the storms, find a place to rest and repair, and wallow in self-pity for a few days. Then you grab your compass and a sextant, and you head back out again. Life is too short to spend it being boring and afraid.

  • 2:35 am
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