2014

I was listening to Colin Cowherd the other morning at work.  Colin, in the midst of reporting on intriguing sports stories, will often salt and pepper his commentary with the occasional pensive anecdote.  He was talking about a chance encounter he'd had years ago with an older man in Las Vegas who was an obvious success and Colin had asked him for advice…what the man told him and what Colin passed on through his broadcast…was something that I will never forget:

"Don't resent success, or you'll never achieve it.  Don't resent money, or you'll never make it...bitter people are rarely successful and never happy.  We celebrate money won…we resent money earned."

I'm paraphrasing here but that was the main point.  This has been rattling around in my brain for several days now and I honestly can't recall how many times over the past decade people have told me that I'm pessimistic…to which I had always replied, "I am not…I'm merely a realist."  My perception was based solely on experience and my experiences hadn't been particularly fruitful…hence, there was no reason for me to meander through life with a happy-go-lucky kind of attitude until circumstance proved otherwise.

Through no greater force that what can only be described as "growing up"…I think I finally get what other people were talking about.  And my one resolution of this year that isn't entirely pretentious (I have a few cliche ones…so what)…is to be happy…and to be happy for other people…especially those that I care about and that care about me.  Last year was filled with the cloudiness of pain, loss, regret, and unrealized ambition.  2014 will be my adventure.

In the midst of this reflective period brought on by the holidays and cyclical churning of time…I have stumbled across an idea…an idea of a series of art work that has the potential to keep me busy for years…an idea that makes me happy.  :)    

I leave you with a quote that ironically comes from an apple commercial (ironic because I've been using a macbook for several years now for my personal computing):

"Your only limits will be the size of your ideas…and the degree of your dedication."