The Only Game in Town

"To take what there is and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived -- to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that -- this doubtless is the right way to live."

-- Henry James

Life doesn't present itself the way you want it to. It has this really nasty, disconcerting habit of not paying any attention to your most exquisite plans. Life just happens.

And, so, you have a choice. You can bewail the fact that life doesn't live up to your wishes, dreams, and desires; you can wait impatiently for things to change for the better; or you can dive right into the big, icky, sticky mess in front of you and go for it!

It's all just raw material, anyway. Every event, happening, circumstance, and experience is just the raw material you need to build your own unique, crazy, idiosyncratic life. And it's given to you gratis. That's a helluva deal! Who are you to be looking this gift horse called Life in the mouth?

And you, too, are raw material -- material that can be molded into a reasonable facsimile of a great human being. But you gotta work with what you got -- both internally and externally. So what if you didn't get born with Barbie doll looks, Einsteinian brains, and Bill Gates dough? You got what you got, and you move forward from there.

Because if you ain't moving forward, you're sliding down, devolving into the primordial ooze from whence we came. Feel your feet turning into fins, your tongue flicking for flies? That's your reptilian brain starting to take over. That's you waiting vainly for perfection to happen.

Don't wait for the preferable, work with the actual. It's all you've got. It's the only game in town.