The Human Spirit

The human psyche goes through an unbelievable rollercoaster throughout the life of a person. We experience such euphoria at times, but also we are subjected to some of the most painful experiences only humans can imagine. Yet we survive and even thrive to grow to be stronger. The stories I hear of friends and even strangers on busses and planes is enough to wonder how mankind can do these things to each other. Military torture has nothing on emotional torture we do to each other.

There is a close friend of mine whose husband spend ten years cheating on her with virtually every woman he met. Imagine now wondering if you or your son might have any number of diseases he might have picked up on his travels. Yet another friend of mine’s former husband has decided that although he makes a horrible father to the point his daughter cries and begs not to have to go to his house, he is trying for increased custody simply to decrease his child custody payments. One would expect a certain amount of bitterness and quite a bit of anger on behalf of these friends, and yet they are some of the most cheerful and caring people I have ever met. I have another who is going through a horrible medical situation yet she has had a smile on her face every day that I have seen her and a pillar of strength to both her children. Sometimes when you wonder how our society can do certain things you hear or see these stories and you understand that this is how we continue to survive. I take a moment and salute everyone who has gone through a horrible experience and yet does not let it taint their spirit or their attitude. May we never lose a bit of our childlike enthusiasm or our love of life.

Speaking of love of life as I was driving my way for another three hour session donating platelets (this time I did not wrench the needle out of my arm by mistake) I had this black BMW on my rear bumper just literally inches away. Ok maybe a few feet but still pretty close. The remarkable thing was I was not far that far away from the car ahead of me, thus it was not like I was being excessively slow. Now hear I am jamming to some good music and this car is just laying on my bumper. Now I love the fact that I am not in a rush in fact I can take all the time I need. So I just ease off the gas a little bit, no brake, just less gas. I look in the rear view mirror and see this guy with sunglasses on literally banging on the steering wheel. All around us there are cars going slower than us, so its not like we are going anywhere quickly. I remember a joke someone told me when I had my old car (yes I will admit a BMW), “What is the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?” The porcupine has its pricks on the outside. (insert laugh here). You know I think some people just need to relax a little, smell the flowers, although probably not on the side of 101.

In other news I was scheduled to fly to Boston to give a talk at a work event on Monday and in typical form for my company I find out today that the event has been postponed. I am a bit disappointed since I was supposed to meet up with a friend I have not seen in a while, however excited to be in the city for Halloween which should be a blast, I will most certainly post pictures here. As for now I am off to have some Tapas for dinner (Tapas being translated as not enough food for a growing boy).