The Ocean is on Fire

"The War," Angels and Airwaves

Saturday, 2:30 PM

I'm sleeping. What do you want?

Oh, you want to go to the beach! Of course I want to go to the beach! I can practice my ferocious bark at all of the the other dogs-- you know, the ones about 5 times my size!

Yes, yes, this is what I remember. I love the sand. Love it.

Hmmm....nope. Don't like this stuff. Looks like a bath. Feels like a bath, too, only colder. Plus there's plants and little animals that dart around in here. Let's stick to the sand.

I'm sorry. Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said, let's go back to the sand. Right now. Excuse me. Look down here, please.
 

This is AWFUL. I HATE it. I was SLEEPING, remember?
 

You bastard.

 

Please help me. That awful man is making me swim. In the ocean. And it's cold. Why do you people not realize I'm a freakin' Bichon?! Most people who own this breed make us wear goddamn bows in our hair!

You've got to be kidding me. You are just as bad as said awful man.

Yeah, this thing is dead. You know why it's dead? Because somebody stuck it in this goddamn water!

Jump? As is, move from this dry rock back into that liquid hell? How stupid do you think I am? Stop pulling the leash. Seriously, I said STOP PULL-

 

Oh hell no.

 Take me home immediately. I hate the beach. I hate the ocean. I hate the sand. You people are going to hell.

Rise Above All Recession

"Stylo," Gorillaz

 Kill all my demons, and my angels might die too.

-Tennessee Williams

Generally speaking, I'm a glass-half-full person. The world is full of good things and I am lucky to have many of these good things in my life. I look under all the rocks in the tide pools and I greet my neighbors and I believe in the power of recycling.

Sometimes, however, life doesn't always deal the easiest, the fastest, or the best cards. Some days aren't always full of laughter or a mid-morning cup of extra coffee. Sometimes that kid is upset or we ran out of dog food or the gas light is on again or the power is out. Sometimes we'll bicker about why no one noticed the overdue AT&T bill. Sometimes my favorite show is unknowingly a re-run. Some days just won't stand out as the Best Ones. And, most likely, these days and moments will be filed away into a rather ambiguous and unmarked area of my memory, one I probably won't recall fondly, or even at all, in later years.

A few years ago, my bright-eyed and indomitable naive and over-dramatic self wouldn't have been okay with any of that. "Live life in the present! Find beauty in every moment! Make today better and more powerful than yesterday!" the shadow of my 23-year-old shell would shout, the irony-laden statements falling like broken glass.  Ironic, because I was hardly doing that myself at the time. I was too busy getting lost in APA format and credential classes while at the same time trying to be a first-year teacher myself. I was living in my classroom, drowning in gluesticks and Number the Stars posters. I was turning down Tim's La Jolla Cove kayaking offers and wondering if teaching would always be this time-consuming.

Today, I think I do a good job of appreciating what I have and cherishing the little things and genuinely enjoying the ride. With the exception of a time-machine to travel back a week and attend Coachella 2010 (while simultaneously still celebrating my best friend's birthday in San Francisco), I don't want for anything, and I really do know how lucky I am. However, I also think it's important to recognize and understand the value of the moments and days that just end up being Good Enough. They'll certainly be there. And not only are those days acceptable, they're necessary. Our days and months and years are full of peaks and valleys, and in order to appreciate and cherish the successes and excitements and "bests," we have to also endure and defeat the sad, unremarkable, and forgettable. Without them, it's impossible to truly know and treasure those days and moments that are nothing short of Perfect.

It's inevitable that, on some days, someone is bound to make you feel foolish and uncomfortable.

On some days, you might be just frustrated enough to lash out and misbehave even though you know it's wrong and you regret it afterwards.

On some days, the best part might simply be to find and curl up in the laundry, drawing comfort from warm and freshly-dried t-shirts.

 But perhaps the most important thing to remember is that, while life is full of risks, fears, and uncertainties, you just never know what big surprise might be waiting around the corner.

There is no need to say another word
It will be golden and eternal just like that
Something good will come of all things yet...

All the dark torturous memories
I do see my star still shining
All those years looking out of jail and ship windows
The irrational mortal loneliness is always crowned

These roads don't move;
you're the one that moves

-"These Roads Don't Move," Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard

Leave a Mark that Can't Erase Neither Space Nor Time

"Young Forever," Jay-Z

A Psalm of Life

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the sould.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end of way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead past bury its dead!

Act,--act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints that, perhaps anaother,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still acheiving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

 *     *     *

(this life is more than just a read-through)

-can't stop, red hot chili peppers