Defying Gravity...

12/31/2011

A song in the play “Wicked” is entitled ”Defying Gravity.” A couple of weeks ago The Nancy and I were traveling back to The Farm from a foray into Winchester, Virginia and enjoyed listening to the soundtrack from the play.  The song “Defying Gravity” resonated and got me to thinking about my own gravity defying life.

I am not into self-aggrandizement and am really not comfortable in settings where people say nice things about me – it’s not my style.  I am just a guy who knows the Universal Presence some of us refer to as God has smiled upon me all of my life, and I haven’t a clue as to why.  Bloviating is not my style, so what I am about to write is not a boast but moreover a point of fact.

I recently retired from a job that provided me with six-figure income for many years, and now a handsome pension that will allow me to live a comfortably yet conservative life.  This is truly amazing to me in so many ways.  I have to be honest and own up to being a not-so-bright kid from a blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore with a mere twenty-two disjointed college credits, and one who quite frankly made it through life with an innate ability for bullshit.  I know I didn’t make it on my looks, but nonetheless I made it.

This begs the question, why?  I said earlier I haven’t a clue as to why, but I do know exactly why.  In my rapidly atrophying medulla oblongata I inadvertently created my life without ever realizing it.  I knew early on I would never make it in this world using my hands – frankly, I have no mechanical ability at all: well, maybe a tad, but a small tad at that.  Being the lazy ass that I am, I knew I would never make it via an education.  I hated school and was determined to do as little as I needed to get through it.  The only reason I have twenty-two college credits is because I needed to take some courses to get my GI Bill money ($325.00 a month) at a time when I needed the mulla.

I have written many times before about being the consummate underachiever.  If awards were given in this category I would have received top honors.  I mastered the art of it, but somewhere deep within me there was a plan, a course, a path that led me to a management position and a rewarding 28-year career.  I defied gravity while so many others of my ilk did not. 

My granddaughter coined the phrase “The Best Day Ever.” It is one The Nancy and I have adopted and declare every morning.  This is going to be The Best Day Ever!  This has been The Best Life Ever!

I think deep within my soul I have always thought of each day this way, though never voiced it, never realized I was declaring it.  It took a four-year old to put it in perspective for me.  I was successful in life because of my attitude toward it.  My glass has always been full to the brim, and never just halfway of anything.

And that is all I have to say about that…