Sunday Scribble: What if life is real?

Sunday Scribble

What if life is real?

It’s a question I posed myself earlier this week as I was pondering another story.  I wanted to write a story that was on the level of some deep and far reaching concepts.  So I decided to ask myself that question.  Of course I wasn’t sure I would get an answer, but I thought it was worth exploring. 

It turns out it was a good question at the right time.  There are a number of people in my life who look at life as one big plan, and I admit, I am one of those believers.  I would also add that I wish someone would tell me what the goal of the plan was – cause I would like to make some adjustments to it in the vein of making it happier for me.  But I digress. 

So I said: “Self,”  paused momentarily as I fruitlessly waited for an answer.  “What if life is real?” 

After a few seconds I gave up waiting for an answer and just sat there, thinking.  This is the part of any one of those documentaries where the narrator would launch into a whole description of what life is – cause you have to understand that aspect of the question in order to answer the question.  Of course we know what life is…… Don’t we?

 Now before you get all fuzzy and watery, this is not a discussion on conception vs abortion, etc.  I was actually headed down a different path.  In a non-philosophical debate that doesn’t touch on conception or abortion we can move beyond that to something more pertinent to this discussion.  Looking at a cross section of friends, associates, acquaintances, occasional visitors, etc. etc. etc.; we can readily find those who we think have NO life, meaning they spend all their days doing work or something not fun or what we might perceive as uninteresting.   Or are we a placeholder.

A placeholder is what it sounds.  Just going through the motions, getting no where fast or slow, just going along – alone usually, towards no goal of possible accomplishment.  They are the people we call paycheck ------- (fill in the job title you wish- player, teacher, musician, construction worker).  They check in at the time clock, do just enough work, avoid creativity or going the mile; they don’t see it as their priority or as part of their job description.  (If you want me to do more, pay me more.)

These place holders have fun, but are they really entitled to it.  ‘Sure’ I thought.  ‘But maybe just enough to say they had fun.’  But then I thought, ‘What if that is living for them?’  And things just kinda clicked.  What if they’re fun was spent doing something that I found completely uninteresting.  Which is, of course, something completely possible. 

And I leave it to you.  Is what you are doing:  Reading a book, hunting, fishing, mud-bogging, crocheting, making kilts (thanks Barbara) or doing something – Anything that is interesting to you.  Is this your life – or are you just holding a place for someone to fill.  Decide before someone decides for you.