Deblog 15: A Good Time

https://youtu.be/gOhxEyPSEoY

You better keep on pushin\’No matter how broke you are\’Cause I\’m broke down and I\’m bankruptAnd you\’re ready to end it allWe gonna have a good timeRockin\’ now to this beatJust keep rockin\’ to scoop the painOh, my God, here comes the painAngel made me numbThe angel made me voidGot thrown out of the barThen I wrecked my carGot socked in the jawCussed out by my MamaSomeone stole my moneyScreamed at by my honeyThings was gettin\’ worseThings was gettin\’ worseThings was gettin\’ worseThings was gettin\’ worseWe gonna have a good life (Courtesy: AZLyrics) 

I think I\’ve managed to sit through the movie \’It\’s a Wonderful Life\’ once. Yeah — I know, the Fishbone song is different. Quite a bit more fun, actually.Don\’t get me wrong — I thought it was good. Like so many others, I rooted for the underdog, etc. etc.However, I think it depressed me a tad. Okay, full disclosure — it made me feel guilty.I mean, this dude got his happy all over the place after being shown the difference he made in the lives of others by Clarence, the angel.I got over the guilt thing pretty quickly, though, because it boils down to intrinsic versus extrinsic validation.I would think that at some point we all fall into our own pit of self-pity: whilst there, we discover that we\’ve hung our value on the way we are thought of or treated by others. It\’s what I said in yesterday\’s post: 

Things have power when we let them have it.

 It\’s easy to get down on things not being exactly as we\’d like. When times get a bit tough, that momentary setback becomes Mt. Everest. It looks like something we\’d never get over or around. But by light of a new day, it becomes evident that we don\’t have it so bad. There are folks out there with real problems. Sure, I might have a few um, extended payment arrangements out there just now but I\’m not homeless. I have running water. I\’m typing on one of er … a few laptops at my disposal. It\’s warm in here. I have two wonderfully uncivilized monsters with whom I share this Cave. There are yummy things in the magic food box. The sun is shining and I can see it. And not that nudity is a bad thing, but I have the option to put on clothes — different, clean sets of clothes that may or may not match.I have choices.I hope that I\’ve made a positive difference in the life of at least one person in the universe, but I can\’t be guilty because of the premise of a film. I can\’t get down on myself because my reality isn\’t someone else\’s. My reality is mine, whether anyone else approves of it or not.And despite a few Mt. Everests, I\’m actually having a pretty good time with it.