still vacationing ... sorta

I am still vacationing, along with trying to get the home and termite inspection scheduled for the house we have under contract.

I started writing this a day or so ago.

The active or the passive life.

Several years ago, I looked over my life and discovered, at that point, that I was a floater, as I call it. I was floating through life. I got up each morning. I went to work. I paid my bills. I contributed to the economy. I talked to my friends. I went out occasionally. I went to bed. The whole process repeated itself again.

I wasn't under happy. I was content for the most part. Until, I inventoried. It was then I decided to make changes in my life. Some were small, while others were broad sweeping changes. One of those changes was getting married to Tammy, whom I had been dating for 18 months.

I became an active participant in my life.

Recently, I have seen the subtle nuances of 'settling down' creeping back in. Routine is trying to claw it's way back to dominance. Now, understand this, there is nothing wrong with getting up every day and going to work. There is nothing wrong with paying your bills. There is nothing wrong with having a group of friends and socializing with said friends. However, it is far too easy to become a passive participant in life.

There are times, and there must be, when you have to cut across the current. There are times you have to strike out against the status quo and shake up the normal. The people who do that are the ones you read about in the paper. I am not talking about the ones committing outrageous acts of violence or mayhem. Social disobedience for the sake of profit or attention is not actively participating in life. More often then not, those people are being drawn by the current they have created in their life . If we follow the progression of events that lead to such acts, we will most likely find a pattern escalating and leading to whatever event captured our attention.

I also think that social change most often comes from one individual rallying others to a common cause that may have began as a cause of one, and grew. Perhaps it was just too far to make it to the back of the bus that day for Rosa Parks, or perhaps she made a conscious choice to effect a revolutionary change. Either way, her active choice lead to sweeping changes in a nation.

There have been others throughout history that have, for the sake of one or the sake of the whole, effected change, by being an active participant. While I am not comparing myself to these individuals, I feel that everyone of us needs to be an active participant in our lives. Everest was not scaled because someone was following everyone. Continents and countries were not found and founded because someone was following the crowd.

Everyone should be an active participator. There are times that the flow of the current is taking you where you want to go. Others times, it is imperative to cut your rudder across the current and set your oars to water.

To be continued ....