Originally written December 5, 2007. Pondering life on the road...

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...sitting here listening to "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan, and thinking about... things...

Mainly I'm thinking about going down to the hotel bar and drinking until I can only manage to crawl back to my room.

"She thinks I'm crazy, but I'm just growing old... Hey Nineteen"

Something about that line just means more to me today than it did years ago.

Cuervo Gold sounds like a good idea though. Might be the only way tonight becomes a wonderful thing.

Life is a funny thing. I just commented to someone about how life is odd. Not just odd feeling, but odd in it's entirety.

Existential moment coming... brace yourself.

...for a planet to be in just the right spot in relation to a star just the right size and to have just the right chemical makeup to create and foster the evolution of life.

Well, life as we know it.

...odd.

...unusual.

...rare.

Seven other planets in our solar system never had a chance.

Yes, life is strange and no one survives it.

So we spend so much time in this life worrying. Worrying about our future. Worrying about the things that lie ahead. Worrying if we're doing the right thing. Worrying about... so many things.

Why?

Is that all we have, as living beings? As human beings?

Is that what this life all about?

To steal an idea; no one knows what life is about, but whatever it is, it's our job to help each other through it.

To add to that idea; a person has to want to help them self through it first, before anyone else can offer any effective help.

People need to be responsible for themselves. For their own actions. Actions that shape their own lives first. Actions that determine who a person is and how they live, and where they're going in this life. If a person can truly accept that fact, then along that path, like a marathon runner, people will extend their hands and hopefully will offer the cup of Gatorade a person so desperately needs at the times it is needed most.

But if you're running with your eyes closed, metaphorically speaking, you're going to miss the cup....

It is up to you.

Always has been.

No one can shape your life more than you can, and already have.

The great thing about life, whatever this life is, it's never too late to reshape it. It's never too late to run down a different path.

And if you do it with an open heart and love for yourself first, there will always be someone to hand you some Gatorade.