Luke says Moo!

Security by Hunter S. Thompson (http://www.ram.org/contrib/security.html)
Security … what does this word mean in relation to life as we know it today? For the most part, it means safety and freedom from worry. It is said to be the end that all men strive for; but is security a utopian goal or is it another word for rut?

Let us visualize the secure man; and by this term, I mean a man who has settled for financial and personal security for his goal in life. In general, he is a man who has pushed ambition and initiative aside and settled down, so to speak, in a boring, but safe and comfortable rut for the rest of his life. His future is but an extension of his present, and he accepts it as such with a complacent shrug of his shoulders. His ideas and ideals are those of society in general and he is accepted as a respectable, but average and prosaic man. But is he a man? has he any self-respect or pride in himself? How could he, when he has risked nothing and gained nothing? What does he think when he sees his youthful dreams of adventure, accomplishment, travel and romance buried under the cloak of conformity? How does he feel when he realizes that he has barely tasted the meal of life; when he sees the prison he has made for himself in pursuit of the almighty dollar? If he thinks this is all well and good, fine, but think of the tragedy of a man who has sacrificed his freedom on the altar of security, and wishes he could turn back the hands of time. A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is instead of living it second-hand. Life has by-passed this man and he has watched from a secure place, afraid to seek anything better What has he done except to sit and wait for the tomorrow which never comes?

Turn back the pages of history and see the men who have shaped the destiny of the world. Security was never theirs, but they lived rather than existed. Where would the world be if all men had sought security and not taken risks or gambled with their lives on the chance that, if they won, life would be different and richer? It is from the bystanders (who are in the vast majority) that we receive the propaganda that life is not worth living, that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must he laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death. These are the ones who squeeze what excitement they can from life out of the imaginations and experiences of others through books and movies. These are the insignificant and forgotten men who preach conformity because it is all they know. These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now-familiar rut and to merely exist through another day. For them, the romance of life is long dead and they are forced to go through the years on a treadmill, cursing their existence, yet afraid to die because of the unknown which faces them after death. They lacked the only true courage: the kind which enables men to face the unknown regardless of the consequences.

As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; so we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

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The River - Garth Brooks

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin’ as it flows
And a dreamer’s just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what’s behind you
And never knowing what’s in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores

Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
‘Til what we put off ’til tomorrow
It has now become today
So don’t you sit upon the shoreline
And say you’re satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance that tide

There’s bound to be rough waters
And I know I’ll tke some falls
With the good Lord as my captain
I can make it through them all

And I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I’ll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Lord, I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry

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I’ve known what both of the above works mean and say for a long while and have said the same thing over and over - I want something different than what I have right now. I have great friends, a loving family, and a life that is in many instances enviable. But I’m not satisfied. I expect something more, but I don’t even know what it is that I expect more of…so I’m finding it very difficult to figure out “what” to do.

I’ve recently had someone suggest I should go get trained as a bartender as that sounds interesting. (I mentioned going and taking classes randomly at the local college just because I could.) But bartending could be interesting…I just don’t think I’d make a good server. I don’t like dealing with people in that much of a fast paced environment. We’ll see what next week holds.

I’ve recently set some of my schedule for the upcoming year as Master of my Lodge. I added a few things that I think impressed several of the guys last night. However, I didn’t add them to impress…I added them in hopes that I could kindle some activity in my Lodge from a larger percentage of the brethren. We’ll see what life brings as I try to implement them.

So long as I can get in the mindset tonight, I’m going to spend the night getting an email sent to Miki so she can have something useful to provide to me in her way as volunteering to help me as a leaderhip coach. (And it turns out that she has a post up about procrastination today…so I guess I fit right in…)

I suppose it irks me that I’ve had several people provide me with advice, contacts, and other “stuff” in the last year or so and I’ve done nothing to move myself in a new direction. At what point does my procrastination become irresponsiblity? Irresponsibility to myself for the most part…I tend to be fairly responsible when dealing with other people.

Anyway, I’ve got more of an agenda set for Lodge (about a month later than I should’ve, but hey I’m never on time with anything). So at least that’s a step in the right direction.