The End of the Rainbow

I love to watch people. I have developed a game where I make up stories in my head about the people I see. I like to get lost in their story, and that may be because I do not feel the right to have a story of my own. I am sure I am not the only person out there who feels this way because if I were, soap operas and “reality” TV would be bad business. What is going to happen to us if we all start pushing reality away and replace it with “reality” TV? I’ll tell you what is going to happen. We are going to start running from anything that is real and makes us feel because it is much less a risk to just sit on the couch and watch other peoples lives instead of living our own. I am guilty of this and I do not even watch soaps or “reality” TV. There are times that we can’t run and we have to face up to what is real, and if in that moment a person chooses wrong and tries to take the easy or comfortable path instead of being honest and taking a risk. It could change your life.

One example I wish to share is about a friend of mine. She told her boyfriend she didn’t want to see him anymore and gave him lame excuses as to why. I think she was hopping he would call her on her crap, but when he didn’t she felt like an ass and instead of apologizing and trying to make things right, she made them worse. I asked her why she did this and she told me that by the time she realized what she had done, the pain she had caused, he acted as if he accepted what she was saying and was ready to move on. In that moment she took the path she was used to and now she is too scared to ask for forgiveness. I hate seeing her so sad it breaks my heart, but she is aware that she did this to herself, and all I can do is be a shoulder to cry on.

We all know the old excuse, “Everyone else is doing it.” Even though for most of us this never worked on our parents, we seem to still be trying to use it to get by. Apparently if everyone else was jumping off a bridge we would to. I believe we all know what is wrong and right. For example we know it is wrong to put soda in a baby’s bottle, but I see people do it all the time. We also know it is bad for us to smoke, drink alcohol, drive too fast, flip off cops, and in the words of the King (and I), “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…” We still do these things. What are we thinking? 

We are thinking it’s not going to happen to me…but it does, and it will. I spent some time this weekend talking to a woman who has been caring for her husband for nearly twenty years. He had a stroke in his thirties and they are in their fifties now. This woman told me they never had children because he was going to retire early and they wanted to be free to travel and spend their time together. Children were not in the cards. She then told me how she really wished she had known what was going to happen because she wished now that she had a family. She told me, “I never thought this would happen to me.”

I am not suggesting that we all go through life thinking the worst is going to happen – I do enough of that, and it’s no fun, trust me. What I am suggesting is turning off the stories and trying to just be honest in every moment because there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. My tip for you try going for a walk with someone you love. The weather will be nice and I know you will be happy you did.

Please contact me at cj@sierramountaintimes.com.