Blog 544 – 02.13.2017

Once Upon A Time

That is the way fairy tales begin but also the way each of these adventures in time and space begin. Like many of you some years ago I found myself quite unhappy with my life and went through the classic steps of grief, well some of them anyway, like denial and blaming others. It is not an altogether bad thing to become unhappy with your life. Sometimes it can be a step towards making your life better. Discontent can be and often is a signal that changes need to be made. I am reminded of the network news anchor in the movie Network who went a bit off the reservation and told his large audience that it was time for each of them to stick their heads out the window and yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” Peaceful protest is not a bad thing as disturbing as it may be to those who think they are in charge. But it is not enough to protest or blame others for our own unhappiness with our lot, our lives. We must take positive steps to make positive changes to our situation. The first step to any positive change is to change our minds.

Before we change direction or location it is always wise to check our attitude, latitude, longitude, and the weather. Pretty long lead in, Dave. Get to the point please. It is this, I was once so unhappy with my life that I was seriously contemplating writing a book and in that book to rewrite my life. I grew up a shy timid poor white trash boy in Chattanooga. Oh, we did not consider ourselves white trash but those who lived like Leave It To Beaver or the Donna Reed Show probably would have. My mom had no pearls to wear around the house. If she had she would have sold them to put more food on the table or better clothes on her boys. Things got so rough in the early fifties that dad moved his young family to Detroit, Michigan where he worked two jobs, day and night, to build a better life for us. My mom missed Chattanooga and begged dad to move us back. He loved her so much that he did even knowing the continuing struggle it would be because of the scarcity of work for uneducated blue collar workers in the South.

In my book I started the rewrite there. Dad convinced mom in my story to stay in Detroit. He got promotions, was able to get his GED and even took night classes at the city College. Dad became a leader in his labor union and got a law degree. These were some of my daddy’s dreams that he never realized in this life but he did in my book. I did not get far into the writing of the book before I began to realize that in spite of all the struggles that I have had a wonderful life and so did my mom and dad even if we didn’t always realize it at the time.

These adventures in space and time are only what we make them. If you see an opportunity to change your life in a positive way by all means do so but before you do check your attitude  your latitude, longitude and the weather. You might just find like Dorothy just back from a dream of Oz that the life you have always dreamed of can also be found right in your own back yard. Once upon a time…they lived happily ever after.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White