'I will try, to pour all of myself, into this life, before I die.'
This week I went to the House of Blues to see Chimaira and Trivium. Trivium flies under my radar as having put out two of my favorite CDs of all time. It was a pleasure to finally see them live, and ultimately had a blast at the show. But the reason for this post is the lyric that I have quoted above. The lyric is from the song, 'Into the Mouth of Hell we March.' A charming little number on their album, Shogun. So here's my short, inspiration piece on the topic.
Coaches often tell their players to 'leave everything on the field.' That means to risk life and limb, scratching, clawing, and grasping at every inch possible during the game, leaving your body deteriorated and your mind exhausted, in hopes that even if you lose, you will not only be satisfied with your effort, but you will be able to walk off the field, or court, or ice, whatever, and get back to living. If there was nothing more you could have done, then what is there to feel bad about? You won't have anything rattling around in your head. You won't be kept up at night with nightmares about missed opportunities or mental breakdowns. You will have either won the contest because you and your team was better, or you will have lost the contest because you and your team wasn't better. Either way, you should be proud of your effort and accept the result.
Another cliche is calling this thing we live 'the game of life.' And I don't think life is a game. I don't think there's anything to 'figure out.' There's no right way to live. There are no answers. No cheat codes. No level skipping. But while life is not a game, life CAN be compared to a game in the same way I described above. And this is a pretty common idea of 'living life to the fullest' and all that junk. But I'm going beyond living life to the fullest. You can live a full life without ever 'leaving it all on the field.' And that's the motivation I have. In the same way that I walk away from a workout feeling completely exhausted, like I couldn't run an extra tenth of a mile, or I couldn't do one more set of lifts, or round of crunches, that's the same feeling I want when I'm nearing my end.
Obviously, there are times in your daily life that 'pouring' all of yourself into this life isn't logical or possible, so don't just try to poke holes in my logic. I understand that this is a blanket statement that doesn't always apply. But I see this in a slightly different light. This doesn't mean you need to give 100% of your effort into everything you do. But when it comes down to it, you need to sacrifice a part of yourself. Break off a little chunk. A quote I have referenced before says 'the only gift is a portion of thyself.' And maybe that's my point. At the end of your time here, when you look back, what did you leave for the rest of the world? How soon will you be forgotten? This digital inner monologue gone public is one of my attempts to create something that will live forever. But when it's all said and done, I want to be able to say that there are little pieces of me scattered throughout the world. And even though I might not be around, people, places and events in time will continue to carry who I am, what I believed in, and what I influenced.
So leave it all on the field. You won't only walk away with a clear mind, but you'll leave the field a better, more inspired place for others to tread.
So, thanksgiving is next week. A time of the year when family members from around the country meet to share food, memories, drinks, and awkward family occurrences, and to give thanks for all the things we've taken for granted. We wish for health, we give thanks for the food, and we toast to another year. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are from my grandparents house on Thanksgivings, watching the Lions play football, eating peanuts, watching the adults drink whiskey sours, the kitchen show being run by my grandma, my cousin and I playing with his massive amount of G.I. Joes on my grandma's ancient T.V., and days and days of food. That last sentence has me all reminiscing and sentimental. Which will be the last time that happens in this post.
Maybe I'm bitter because 90% of my family lives in either Florida, Arizona, California, or Hawaii. Maybe hearing about everyone else's family parties has turned me into a cold rainy day in November. Maybe the idea of family holidays are lost. And maybe that's why I feel this way. I don't have family parties (mom, if you read this, don't get upset. I'm just making a point). Our family parties consist of the same 5 people that are together 1 or 2 Sundays a month anyway. We're not doing anything special. Turkey instead of sausage... okay. But the nostalgia of Thanksgiving, and every holiday really, is gone. Dead. That's not to say I don't love spending time with my family, but for now, thanksgiving seems like a sham.
We're not giving thanks for the same things that were being celebrated several hundred years ago. Times have changed, so have we. Give thanks every day to the things that make your life better. Don't wait until a hogwash holiday to finally recognize that there are things in your life to be thankful for. Don't wait until your entire family is in the same house, in ugly sweaters, to tell them all how you feel. Yeah, if you want to save late November as the only time of the year to travel, fine, I'm glad you all could make it. But be with your family more often than the holidays. Even if that means calling them, writing them, or sending them something. You can stay connected now easier than ever, so start. Don't get me wrong, this is a challenge to me as much as it is to anyone who reads this.
For those that love the holiday, this isn't a slight to you. If your family gathers everyone up, grandparents to grand kids, and you have the same joyous get togethers that linger in the back of my memory, I am jealous. If you need to use Thanksgiving as the excuse to get everyone together, then so be it.
But don't say you're celebrating Thanksgiving. Give thanks every day, appreciate every day, love your family, and always keep them in your thoughts. We shouldn't need a holiday for that, should we? Celebrate that.
I don't know who these people are. Thanks Google Images!
"'Men lie, women lie, numbers don't" (Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3; Reminder). Well I am here to say that numbers, stats, findings, recordings, charts, graphs, tables, they all distort views like kaleidoscopes. It is my belief that you can twist and angle any set of data to either help make your point or hurt it. There are so many tricks to manipulating information that it's amazing that anyone falls for the revelations some of them unveil.
Jay-Z has released 11 studio albums. Jay-Z has 11 number 1 albums. He just passed Elvis. That number doesn't lie.
Well from the onset, sure. Eleven times, his CD has reached number one on the charts. But we're comparing him to the rest of the world right? The rest of history. Some might say that because of this number, Jay-Z is the most successful, most popular artist of all time. But there is no way to compare. You're talking about different times of the world. Times when people didn't buy music because they didn't have the means to play it. People that had different interests than music. People that had to deal with World Wars. People that didn't go to college where music tastes are passed around faster than herpes. Barely. And now and days, there are so many more genres, artists of other kinda of music can't compete. Careers don't seem to last as long. Fads come and go. And maybe all of that is a testament to Jay-Z, that he picked the right road and endured what others could not. And he may very well be the most successful musical artist of all time. But don't you tell me that it's because the amount of number 1 records he has.
Just look at how many other stats that are looked at where you can't rule out the factor of variables. Only scientific experiments that eliminate the variables can be trusted.
Sports Stats
Baseball:
Batting Average: Depends on number of at bats, what league you're in, what team you're on, where you play, who your opponents are, what the weather is like, how strong your bats are, what way the wind is blowing, etc.
Runs Batted In: Depends on how often your teammates get in scoring position, where you hit in the lineup, how many outs there are, in addition to everything else that I mentioned with batting average.
Football:
Yards per Carry: Depends on your offensive line, the team you're playing, the league you're in, where you play, what the weather is like, what the field is made out of, etc.
Receptions: Depends on the defenders, the quarterback, the weather conditions, the time of the game, plus everything from the previous one.
Golf:
Strokes: Depends on the time of day, the amount of wind. You could take the exact same shot, same motion, same speed, same percentage of the ball hit, and it will do different things every time. Why? Well because it would be very rare for the air to be identical every single shot. So even non-team sports lace in factors that influence the purity of stats.
Movie Stats
Highest Grossing Film of All Time
Most Tickets Sold of All Time
Highest Opening WeekendMost Rented
ETC
All of these, even when 'adjusted for inflation,' still don't consider social times, economic times, and just times in general (think woman's rights, African American rights, etc.). Can you ever compare movies between decades, between genres, between mediums? Way too many variables.
Work Stats
A new program is started that is supposed to decrease the number of mistakes. Well how will you know if the program is working? By monitoring the number of mistakes, silly! Less mistakes = program successful. But what if the people are just trying a little harder? Maybe someone gave the team a pep-talk. Maybe there was a new hire that's skewing all the results. Maybe a new kind of problem is arising, causing what seems to be more mistakes.
I only gave you a handful of examples, but there really are a countless number of things I could have shown you. What I should have done is find a stat to tell me how many stats are actually inaccurate. But, even that would be inaccurate. So to draw this all back into the big picture, stats can be used to mislead and misrepresent, so as is the case with all scenarios, situations, hassles, or every day occurrences, it is always encouraged to dig a little deeper than the surface, see if you can find out the facts for yourself, and make your own decision, not what someone is trying to sell you on.
A friend of mine recently proposed a conundrum: "Is it bad that because I have such high ambition I'm never happy with what I actually have cuz its no where close to where I want to be?"
This disconnect is really hard for me to wrap my head around, so let's see what comes out.
Two very distinct ways of approaching life resonate on this topic: Never stop pursuing what you dream. / Be content with what you have. Can these two ever survive in the same life?
The first one: Big house. Fast cars. Toys. Gadgets. Clothes. The life that the world tells us we should have. And the life that the world tells us we can have, if we never give up our dreams. Never stop believing in yourself. Never give anything but your full effort, and there's nothing you can't accomplish. Why, if you want that Ferrari, then just keep practicing those free throws, or selling that stock, or pushing those papers, because one day, alllll that effort and alllll that hard work will pay off, and you'll be staring at the life you've always dreamed of, right? HELL YEAH! Who can fault anyone that has that ambition? Who can look at someone that says 'I want to climb this ladder faster than anyone else, I want to be the best one here, and I want to make a name for myself,' and think that they are wrong? Striving to be everything you think you can be is an admirable trait. It's not something that everyone possesses. It shows signs of leadership, determination, passion. It is seemingly flawless, right? Well, assuming you're okay sacraficing friends, family, hobbies, and time for yourself in order to pump in hours and efforts focused towards a goal that you don't get to enjoy if you're constantly looking at the next step.
The second one: A simple life. The necessities. Finding the good in the bad and the big in the small. Living the life that will continue to make you happy despite job, money, and any other extra amenity that fills out our lives, relying instead on inmaterial objects of love, compassion, and an appreciation for the gift of life. Well hell, that sounds perfect right? A simple life of long summer days in the fields and slow fall nights in the rain and long winter evenings by the fire place and fast spring days in the garden. Nature becomes your best friend. Well, and friends. You waste time telling stories instead of seeing movies. You make projects for rebuilding the downtrodden instead of buying the newest gadget. You don't even bat an eye if someone nicks your car, it would just add character, not add an ulcer. There's no need to DVR 18 different shows a week to see which fake life is more important. You don't even have to be caught up in the news. Your freedoms flow as far as your happiness, and nothing that you have can be taken away by a bank. Well, that's all fine and dandy if you're okay be a lazy bum that doesn't plan for the future and can't provide the means for future generations of education and a life that gives them options.
So is the answer balance? Probably. But how?
Well I don't really know how. But if you are hell bent on this fast-paced, shiny object, fancy clothes lifestyle of high price tags and swank parties, you need to do whatever you can to appreciate what you already have. And if you're a moseying member of society that doesn't mind trucking down the gravel road at a pace slow enough to make out shapes in the clouds, then don't be surprised if you get passed by some hot shot doin 80 in his new benz, because he can probably pay the bills, even if most of them are credit card bills. If you're never striving for the next level, then there's never room for evolution, for progression, a path to lead the masses above their current situation. You'd be living a life with a ceiling too low to grow to full potential.
So while playing the first level of Super Mario Brothers over and over and over and over and over and over again might be fun, it should make you want to go further. But every time you beat a level, the FIRST reaction shouldn't be to beat the next level, but take some time to appreciate your accomplishments. Life can't be lived only looking forward or only looking back. The present is an amazing place to be. Try it out for a while. You might find you like it here.
