You are probably thinking this is going to be some sick toilet joke right? Ha, got ya! This is actually a serious monologue so if you're looking for dirty humor go somewhere else, or call me cause I like sick jokes too!
Now what I want to discuss today is a revelation I had while reading a book over the holidays - what you have been through in your life or what you have chose to do in your life seeps under your skin and quietly grows and takes root in your body (probably somewhere near the spleen) and actually becomes a part of you which is then released into the world as your "spirit" or "essence" or whatever metaphysical term suits your fancy. What has me contemplating such things you may ask? Well the girls are home from college and they have made such wise decisions thus far in their young life, and when I was their age I was in sharp contrast. I was making a fool of myself instead of making wise decisions. I lived as though everything I was doing and saying and being had no consequence to the person I would be in 10 years. "I can do this now because I know I'll stop later and poof it will be gone from my life and I won't even spend one an of energy on it!" Boy was I wrong! All those old demons come back to bite you when you least expect it. Some of them have been hiding under the bed for 15 years and then they sink their claws in. Now don't get me wrong, I am totally for living a crazy, joi de vivre, kind of life. Most of the regret I'm talking about has to do with the way I treated people in the past. So, in light of this I will be living more consciously so I can be an old lady on the beach in Florida, with a really wrinkly dark tan, sipping my cocktails, and laughing at my crazy adventures - not crying about the foolish way I treated people.
A beautiful friend, Julie Jackson, let me borrow her book "Eat, Pray, Love" - I did all of those things to this book! I devoured it over the holidays and took many things from it. One such thing, which is kind of in contrast to the monologue above, is the idea of passato remoto - an Italian view that is used to describe things that happened so long ago that they have no personal impact on you what so ever. I think I will embrace a little of this and try to get some distance between myself and some of the hurtful events of my past.
Other things from the book that I found deserved some extra thought:
- Americans are really bad at doing nothing
-Octavian Augustus said don't get attached to who you are or what you serve
-Codega - a fellow hired in the middle ages to hold a lantern in front of you as you walked alone in the dark streets to light your way and ward off demons
- smile everywhere - even in your liver
- Diligent Joy
- a person seeking their own happiness is not selfish since unhappiness causes distress and suffering to others