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Reality checked.
Do your rumpled clothes and lank hair point to a life that has failed to live up to your high expectations? Do you think that the compromises you have made in your career have filled your life soullessness, and hopeless emptiness? Do you feel that whatever dreams you had in your life are now only self-destructive delusions which are choking on you? Would you say that you are on the brink of suffocating your unfulfilled hopes of early retirement and easy life?
When asked: “Where is your compassion?” do you find yourself admitting that it is “nowhere?” You cannot even reach it yourself. Do you feel that you have become old and every look you made and every phrase you pronounce has so many different ingredients - mainly ironies? Do you feel that you have extraordinary talent which you are sacrificing in a mundane world?
Are you a might-have-been? Whoever said that you were meant to be a big deal? Were you destined to be with the great and good? You might be asked to work for reduced hours or even worse you lose your job because the company wants to reduce its costs, but one thing you never have to face is reduced dignity.
If life seems to have no heart and leaves you with a sense of sadness and cold, it is time for a reality check. You are the writer of your own saga, and you decide if it is a tragic or an uplifting one. If you feel that you have no role to play in your own play, small wonder then, that others only call you a nuisance. If you are a rebel without a cause or not bohemian enough, find the values you believe in so that what used to be empty is full and what tasted sour tastes at least bittersweet.
You have to let go of an idea that you are too old. You have to recycle all the clichés and stereotypes about middle-aged life. Instead of trying to fit into the rut with quiet desperation, try to aim for the Zeitgeist and don’t let anyone to steal the magic of everyday creativity. Refuse to be let down by those who categorise you by your age, social status, or wealth (the list goes on).
Do something different! Ride a skateboard; get a massive adrenaline buzz from riding bowls and ramps. Enjoy perfecting street tricks or use skateboards as an eco-friendly means of transport. Have fun and get fit in the process.
Hopefully it might strike you that fun might be contagious.
©2009 Kristina Julin-Stringer
When asked: “Where is your compassion?” do you find yourself admitting that it is “nowhere?” You cannot even reach it yourself. Do you feel that you have become old and every look you made and every phrase you pronounce has so many different ingredients - mainly ironies? Do you feel that you have extraordinary talent which you are sacrificing in a mundane world?
Are you a might-have-been? Whoever said that you were meant to be a big deal? Were you destined to be with the great and good? You might be asked to work for reduced hours or even worse you lose your job because the company wants to reduce its costs, but one thing you never have to face is reduced dignity.
If life seems to have no heart and leaves you with a sense of sadness and cold, it is time for a reality check. You are the writer of your own saga, and you decide if it is a tragic or an uplifting one. If you feel that you have no role to play in your own play, small wonder then, that others only call you a nuisance. If you are a rebel without a cause or not bohemian enough, find the values you believe in so that what used to be empty is full and what tasted sour tastes at least bittersweet.
You have to let go of an idea that you are too old. You have to recycle all the clichés and stereotypes about middle-aged life. Instead of trying to fit into the rut with quiet desperation, try to aim for the Zeitgeist and don’t let anyone to steal the magic of everyday creativity. Refuse to be let down by those who categorise you by your age, social status, or wealth (the list goes on).
Do something different! Ride a skateboard; get a massive adrenaline buzz from riding bowls and ramps. Enjoy perfecting street tricks or use skateboards as an eco-friendly means of transport. Have fun and get fit in the process.
Hopefully it might strike you that fun might be contagious.
©2009 Kristina Julin-Stringer
Comment
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Comment by KRISTINA JULIN-STRINGER on February 11, 2009 at 11:46am -
Martin,
Maybe I should make it as a skateboard ad. I'll go and check if the skateboard company has an affiliate program and I'll join right away!
The purpose of the article is to say: "Do not use age as an excuse not to do something!" Skateboarding is considered as an activity done when young, but who says....
It is time to at least think differently.
Be well,
Kristina
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Comment by Martin Kendall on February 11, 2009 at 11:37am -
Kristina,
Right at the end of the piece it looks like a skateboard advert :-)
On a serious note I must say I have observed so many people behaving in the apparent "submission to fate". I describe it as "the inadvertent 100% dependency".
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