“Wishing you and yours a happy NOW year!”
Having a great day in 2020 is not un-similar to what I’ve seen people experience when suddenly finding “success” in life.
It’s easy to almost feel ashamed of it.
The best day in someone’s life will always align with the worst of someone else’s. This year, there does seem to be far more worst than best.
Like the prophets known as Smash Mouth once said, “The hits start coming and they don’t stop coming…” but depending on your outlook or year, “Hits” could be referring to a platinum album release or a hammer relentlessly nailing you into the ground.
Listen, there’s always been an almost unbearable amount of pain in the world, there always will be, and I’m not saying it isn’t valid or that I don’t have my own.
What I am saying is that EVERY year ends with someone saying, “Thank God (insert current year here) is finally over! What a crap-shoot!” or the new trend… “Can we skip daylight savings time this year? I don’t need an extra hour of 2020.”
But here’s a secret for the curious…
Life is one big run-on sentence. There are no periods.*
Not the end of the year, not at finally landing that gig. Life is ONLY made up of COMAS.
Daylight saves you no time. No year comes to an end. There are no period(S) just one final PERIOD and if you’re reading this, you’re above the roses and haven’t reached it yet.
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world,” Charlie Chaplin once said, “…not even our troubles.”
Seeing the positive in life is not a result, it’s a fucking habit. (One that I’m shit at regularly) But most don’t understand that those who suddenly found “success” ACTUALLY found it amid the shit, years before things started appearing shiny on the outside.
Musicians who complained about the food in dive venues, are often the ones to complain about catering in the arenas.
In the words of holocaust survivor Victor Frankl,
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
My friend, what a year this has been. I too find myself in want of a reset. But why wait till January 1st, 2021 when November 1st, 2020 will work just as well.
Because maybe Nayyirah Waheed did put it best when she said,
“I don’t pay attention to the world ending. It has ended for me many times and began again in the morning.”
Stay curious my friends,
-rob
P.S. ”Life is one big run-on sentence.” was inspired by something Matthew McConaughey said in an interview recently. His new book, “Green Lights.” if you’re in a place where this essay impacted you, I’d recommend checking out that book. You can get it HERE.
This essay was co-written with Sarah Morgan originally published at: http://therobmorgan.com/blog/happynowyear
For The Curious…
Rob Morgan is an internationally touring bassist and music director who keeps a weather eye out for the curious. He can be found online at www.therobmorgan.com
