Time & Tide

There are two million stories in the yellow pages, and this has been one of them.  Steve Martin made me laugh in “The Jerk.”  He was so excited when he got his name in the telephone directory.  His reasoning?  “Do you know how many people read this every day?”  Times have changed though.  I look online for addresses these days.
I was thinking about that, as my life is a story.  What has got me though, is how quick it goes.  When I was young I wanted to be older, and now that I am older I would like to be younger.  However, wanting it different does not make it different.  The one exception that I know of was, the curious life of Benjamin Britain.  But that was a made-up story.
I can’t believe how quickly the last 30 years have gone.  I remember catching a bus when I had just turned 30.  It really does not seem like that long ago.  The thing is, it was over half a life-time ago.  Where did those years go?
I am concerned big time for young people.  I don’t want them making the same mistake I did.  When someone is young we commonly say “they have got their whole life in front of them,” or “the word is their oyster.”  It is.  But it will not be forever.
There will come a day when the options that were available are no longer available.  Where wishing will replace hoping.  Who knows if I would have listened, but I do not remember being warned.
It seems so common to hear “I don’t know where the year went” and how fast the year has gone by.  It does.  It seems one day I am 30 and the next day I am 60.  Some make the most of every day.  Many don’t.  I was one of the many.
I have lived a full and interesting life though, but I can never get time back again.  I had one shot.  I confused activity with accomplishment.  I achieved stuff, but it could have been better.  There have been milestones and millstones.  For me, being a flash in the pan is less impressive than being in it for the long haul.  The question for me is “will what has been achieved last?”  It may for an organization, but I will be long gone.  I ask myself, what have I done that will last with me?
They say “don’t sweat the small stuff” and they are right.  But they don’t say “don’t do the small stuff.”  Small stuff matters.  For me small stuff is everyday stuff.  Do enough small stuff and it becomes big stuff.  Life is not all climatic moments. 
In movies there are some climatic moments along the way, but much of the time is spent building the story.  It ends in a climax.  The small stuff builds the story.  I need to know what the story is about.  I have no interest in something that goes nowhere.  When I know, I am absorbed, and wonder what is going to happen.  The small stuff adds to the intrigue.  I don’t want it to be a fight scene from start to finish, or an over the top car chase.  I am happy to have something build.
For me life is the same.  I can build something grand or something modest.  Whatever it is, I don’t have forever to do it.