It's a Bittersweet Symphony, This Life...

"Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet, yeah"
- The Verve

This is what I listened to on the way to school this morning...and it made me think. Not in that hard, analytical way that I have to do when trying to do complex math (NOTE: my doing complex math is to be avoided at all costs. I went to school for words, not numbers. Somewhere out there Patsy Giles is nodding her head in fervent agreement...), but in that easy, random-thoughts-lead-to-other-random-thoughts way.

Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life

It is bittersweet. I find myself doing the "random thoughts" thing often lately. My morning and afternoon commute afford me that inconvenience luxury. It makes me notice things. Like the fact that there was a ridiculous amount of jet plane traffic this morning. The evidence was left in the sky, marking multiple white, albeit fading, "X's" over the town of Batesville. This made me think about pilots - taking people where they need to go to do their various jobs, take their various vacations, and live their various lives. I wished that I was on one of those planes. Not because I'm sad, or lonely..just to add some spice to this mundane routine I seem to be getting myself in. Wake up, struggle to get out the door on time, inhalation of coffee, dash to the classroom, fail at stamping out ignorance, eat, sleep, repeat. As Belle from Beauty & the Beast laments, "There must be more than this provincial life."

When I got to school, to add a little detour to my so called provincial life, I did something I normally don't do. I greeted everyone I saw. Normally, I sign in, trying my best to avoid the principal and children under the age of 12, and hoof it to my classroom. For some reason or another, maybe after my extended pondering, I felt compelled to be cheery. No sense in walking around like someone spit in my Wheaties this morning (NOTE #2: I NEVER eat my Wheaties...I find them to be an extra disgusting food-like excuse for a cereal. I liken it to chopping up hay and soaking it in milk. Does that sound like a breakfast of "Champions" to you? No, it does not). As I passed people, I realized that when I spoke to the custodian in the lunch building, I didn't know his name. One of the most important people in the school, the one who keeps this school immaculately clean (they mop EVERYDAY here. When I was in high school, we were lucky to have the floor swept once a week), gets the least recognition. I felt a little ashamed - then resolved to ask his name next time I pass him. Cynical and hard hearted as I may be sometimes, the older I get the more I understand that my word cannot go 'round without the people, named and unnamed, in it. I think I want to make it a goal to get to know those unnamed ones a little better and let them know that I appreciate them. I'm thinking (that seems to be my theme today) that maybe not a lot of people take the time for that. No one likes to feel appreciated more than I do, so I feel like I should be paying it forward, so to speak. My day has been strangely more enjoyable already. Humanity is something we have to live with, be a part of, and place hope in. Jack Johnson says we're just a bubble in a boiling pot. He's right.

We all have roads to travel. Physically and metaphorically. We all have to work together to make this world spin. We humans are just that - human. I think in general, people are just doing the best they can with the best they have. Learn to appreciate struggle, adversity, inconvenience. It makes the things you celebrate that much sweeter. I often find myself repeating this little gem of wisdom, offered by Sally Qwong, over and over in my head:  "Is it going to matter in 10 minutes? 10 days? Ten years?" Life is about the little things - I think that is easily forgotten. So as you go along with your day, take an extra second and think of someone who has helped you. Maybe it's the person who made the computer screen you're looking at. Maybe it's the person in the car who let you go first at a stop sign when they had the right of way and you had to be at [fill in important place that may or may not matter in an hour] and you were already 15 minutes late. Maybe it's the person who gave you a dime when you didn't want to break that $20 when you were at Walmart. Maybe it's none of those. But there's always someone. Appreciate them.

I recently read a story in which a grandfather said something pretty profound to his grandson. I feel it's an appropriate close to this rant, lecture, whatever this is.

"You always complain about the red lights, but you never celebrate the green ones."

Carpe Diem,

Erin