Yes indeed, took a whole week off after a month of posting almost every day.
While trying to decide whether to write a novel in a month, completing fourteen hour workdays, or reveling in the pleasure of understanding Internal Revenue Code 6702, life has been a barrel of fun.
Regardless, it feels good to sit at the keyboard again.
One of the reasons I took a week off was because it started to feel like everything I wrote was laced with cynicism and sarcasm (two of my favorite states of being), and I got tired of reading about it. I kept looking at my posts, thinking "This guy needs to get laid - or at least get out of the house once in awhile." My subconscious must have agreed, since during the past week I've had salacious dreams involving Cameron Diaz, an extremely hot ex-girlfriend, and Newt Gingrich (if you're a little confused by that last one, you're not the only one...).
Needless to say, it's time to move on and rediscover the joy in life.
So of course I turned to the Sports Section...
And found out Red Auerbach died on Saturday.
Ouch.
Actually, this was one of those moments that makes me think - a lot.
For those who don't know, Red Auerbach was the winningest basketball coach in NBA history (and if you don't care about NBA basketball, you should be ashamed of yourself).
Red was one of those guys you couldn't help but admire, no matter what team you rooted for. He was involved in 16 national championships for the Boston Celtics, 9 as a coach and 7 more as the general manager. He invented the "victory cigar", lighting one up on the bench every time he knew his team was about to win. He was one of those guys who spent his whole life doing what he loved. And it showed. As I read about his career, I was struck by the thought - could Red have existed today, could he have become a legend in the 21st century?
I doubt it. The cigar police would have arrested him for violating FAQMD regulations.
It made me think about the world and how it has changed. I got an email from my uncle Paul the other day - one of those retrospective "remember the way life used to be" multimedia deals with slides and music and pictures. Very cool. Check it out at -
...and while I watched it, I remembered how COOL a Viewmaster was. When I got one, I was about 10, and it was the ultimate technology - my very own slide show (I had one about dinosaurs). I musta watched those things a couple of hundred times each. REAL DINOSAURS (or at least real pictures of dinosaur models - in color even). How cool is that?
And I'm wondering if life is getting better or not. I mean, does it actually help that I can get 900 stations on my Hi-Def TV set when there's nothing to watch and a good book is actually more satisfying? I live in Southern California, have a couple of dozen excellent friends, plus family, yet I have no time to visit with any of them because I work sixty-plus hours a week, and it takes two hours to drive 10 miles to see any of them. How does this improve my life?
Every aspect of life is regulated, controlled, observed, scrutinized, boxed-in, and examined. And I don't recall any further satisfaction on any level as a result for anybody I know (though the examiners, scrutinizers, and observers have plenty work to do, so we've got that to be thankful for).
I grew up having neighbors. Now I don't know who they are and don't care to. What happened?
It takes longer to do everything, maybe because I have to keep track of all the time-saving devices at my disposal.
I have to go to the gym to 'work-out.' No wonder I don't want to go. Even exercise is work these days. I used to participate in sports or games. Now I count carbs, heartrate, fat calories burned, and minutes until I'm done. yippee...
There's got to be a better way. I see it in my friends and family with their family - a little oasis of life and love in the midst of all the rushing around and chaos.
And I'm reminded of better times when I read about Red Auerbach living life about as fully as it could be lived, back when sports were fun and following them was not a full-time occupation filled with 'fantasy' leagues, salary caps, and athletes who make so much money that each one of them could pay off the national debt of Rwanda - by themselves.
I want a world where the population doesn't double by the year 2011, where it's still possible to live in a place where I don't have to bar my windows and doors, where the evening news actually includes events that matter to people, not just car crashes and double homicides, and a world where reality-TV doesn't mean there is no reality connected whatsoever. In fact, let's just make an agreement right now and eliminate 'reality-TV' altogether. As of today it no longer exists. Okay?
I feel better already.
I'm not advocating a 'kinder and gentler' America. George already has a trademark on that vision and we're seeing his particular version of kind and gentle right now. How about a land where "freedom reigns"? I'd go for that. A land where I don't have to register with the city to put a "For Sale" sign on my car, or have a yard sale in my yard.
Actually I started out saying how I wanted to be less cynical and sarcastic - how about this - I love this country and I'm tired of someone else telling me their version of what it should look like - candified, homogenized, commercialized, mass-marketed, shrink-wrapped, sound-bitten, politically-corrected, and oh-so-carefully packaged by those who stand to gain the most by keeping us sedated, sequestered, and seduced by telling us we continue to live in the "land of the free and home of the brave".
It's time to wake up and smell the roses, drink the coffee, and eat some homemade pasta. And out of respect for Red Auerbach, smoke a cigar...