I was driving through a 'mountain' range north into the Central Valley of California when my wife commented on the beauty of the distant mountains. Now, I included MOUNTAIN in quotes because I wanted no one to get the idea that these were the heavily forested snow-capped peaks that would automatically be brought to mind. After all, this is Southern California coastal sage and scrub, the technical term for 'little bushes and rocks'.
But, it did look pretty from a distance. It appeared green as a golf course and blankety smooth, if you looked farther than several hundred yards from the roadway that is. Any closer and all you would see is the little bushes and rocks.
I commented to her, in my often dystopian view, that if you climbed to the top it would all look the same as the sparse dry edge of the highway. Of course, as is my way I commented further. I expressed my opinion that most things in life are this way.
Look at the produce in the grocery store, from two aisles over and what you would see is bright colors, plump and shiny pieces of fruit and your mouth would begin to water. But, roll your cart over to get some and then you see every bruise on the over-ripe bananas, the wilted greens and rotten apples.
To now draw some judgements about peoples looks, just for the sake of this article of course, we've all had the following experience whether you're a boy or a girl- You're out walking, driving or riding a bike and from a distance you see a very attractive person, but as you get closer you realize that is not the case at all and far from it. Your mind got very very creative with the minimal information at its disposal.
On people you meet and eventually become acquainted with, at first you think to yourself, "Now here's a real together person." Roll forward a few days, months or years, and you will have wished you fled in terror or are now comforted that they are just about as messed up as yourself (of course I'm speaking of MYself).
Le's drill down deep now and look inward at the events that have made up our lives. Often when we look back it can look very beautiful or so bleak you want to end it all now. But while you were in it, it didn't look as beautiful or bleak as you remember.
That vacation from hell you took with the kids, while it was happening you were looking for a steep and craggy cliff from which to toss them from. Roll forward some years and you all sit around laughing about it as if it was better than Disneyland. (This really happened for me)
So, you say, "How in God's name is this supposed to help me? Did I just waste 10 minutes of my time reading 500 words when I could have found out how the Kardashian family is doing in a lot less?"
Hold on for just a few more words.
If we would arm ourselves with this knowledge in advance, we could free ourselves from much grief and disappointment. We would be free to pursue relationships with much less than perfect people. The huge expectations we put on family could be minimized and make for much more harmonious holidays.
There are at least 101 more applications to make a more pleasant life for ourselves and others.
Just sayin'.
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