My Hat Goes Off...Maybe Even My Pants

It's going to take me a few minutes to get to the point of the title so just bear/bare with me.

I for one will be very glad when this semester is over. Talk about being on overload--geez...I feel like a machine that just grades papers and at that point the fun just isn't there to be able to enjoy the teaching experience. Well the forecast for next semester seems more favorable so far. I have three classes on M-W-F and two other night classes on T-TR which should make for a more manageable schedule and hopefully allow me to get my writing back on track--yeah--yeah--that's right--talk is cheap and I know it. The proof is in the actual writing and I need to get the routine back.

Getting the routine back is important as long as the routine serves you and not vice versa. I advise caution here as well as enthusiasm. What one must remember is that the routine cannot control your life--otherwise it becomes a compulsion or addiction and we spend most of our lives feeding the monkey. We all have them--the routine which we all become accustomed to and just merrily allow ourselves to be drawn into its clutches. Most of the time we go willingly, we let it cradle us and even rock us to sleep sometimes. If we don't allow ourselves to break free of these routines--and of course I am referring to the bad ones--we will never be willing or able to accept the fact that change is always inevitable as long as we are willing to accept the consequences of those actions and that is where the crap hits the fan.

This results in calling for the destruction of another routine that brings us a sense of comfort. The one that says that to have something is better than nothing. These come in many shapes and forms...I'm not smart enough, or I am not good at something or I'm too old or I'm too young, I'm the wrong height, I'm too skinny or fat...etc. We conveniently use these as a tool to sit back on our comforting laurels and wallow in the muck of complacency because we don't want to be one of those kind.

Yet we hear about "those people" that dare to make the leap to break the bonds of complacency and do what everyone whispers about in dark corners when they see one of "those people." You have heard it and possibly even said it before:

"Have you heard what so and so did? How scandalous is that!"
"What could have come over him/her? What were they thinking?"
"Oh--it'll never work of course!"

Now i am not condoning acts of the bizzare or perverted but rather those that are grounded in some form of a moral sense of right or wrong.

If life was a fairy tale then things would always go perfectly. But when we remove the haze of complacency that has resided at our address for so long that we get mail addressed to Mr. or Mrs. Complacent, we have accepted it as the norm. Then we must decide that if we take the big risk and rid ourselves of this routine, perhaps it is a real chance to attain what we really want or need, even if the odds are against it. These people who take the chance and remove the blanket of false security and bare their butts to the cold harsh world in which we live and risk freezing their butts off by the rest of the so-called proper society, are the true risk takers. They have recognized what holds them back and removed the obstacles. They go double or nothing and hope for the best.

Remember the scene from the Indiana Jones movie...I think it was the one with the search for the Holy Grail when Indy has to take that step off the cliff and he cannot see the stone bridge that is actually there..it's a leap of faith. Not much different is it--to risk it all with just one step.

So to the butt bearing community--and you know who you are--my hat goes off to you folks--and heck even my own pants. And just to clarify...it's just one foot in front of the other--right?