The Daily Grind...

A wise person once said we should live each day to the fullest as if it were the last day of our lives. Ok, maybe this is a combination of a few wise folks. I believe it must have been the advice the 3 wise men gave Jesus at his birth. These are truly words to live by. They are a wonderful concept, an ideal utopian of thought; ideas of a pure genius.

I think whoever said these words should be taken out into a beautiful meadow with flowers and grass on a beautiful day when the sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky and frolic with whatever Anakin and Padme frolicked with in Episode II and be put to death in the most horrific way imaginable.

If you think about it, how is this possible at all? This statement exists just to make us people who need to work for a living feel terrible about our mundane existence. How many people do you know personally that can spend every day of their life as if it were their last? Do these “wise folk” honestly think that if I knew I would die tomorrow I would spend my last day pushing papers across a desk and filing folders for some company I have no stake in? Would I really want to be grinding the axe for 8 hours of my last 24 hours? HELL NO! But can I live my life the way I really want to? I suppose I could if I decided things such as food, shelter, clothes, entertainment weren’t important. Since you need money to have those things, and without a job you have no money. And there, my friends, lays the inevitable catch 22. Wanting to do fun things in life = paying for them = having a job to afford those fun things = having no time to enjoy those fun things.

Now an even wiser soul said Life isn’t fair. And if this doesn’t prove that statement, I don’t know what does. So as I go to bed early (missing the Daily Show and Conan) so I can get up way to early (I hate mornings) to go to my job to make money, I can think about how I would like to spend each day and then sink into a deep spiral of dark depression when I finally realize that is a pipe dream that will never happen for me. I will be stuck in the daily grind for years to come just so I can afford the most basic things to live and not have time to enjoy them. Yep, I’ll be stuck in this hell forever…that is until I win the Powerball and quit my job and really live each day to the fullest with my Millions and Millions of dollars!

You've come a long way, Popey

Not to bring up an old subject, but to bring up an old subject: the new pope. I should have commented back when Big Matt was tearing JPII a new one for, well, not wiping anyone else's (makes sense if you read it), but was silent. Conspicuously silent. Please, stop sending letters. At a time when a world in mourning turned to a small comedy troupe's blog for moral guidance and comfort, Nang said nothing. And why? I was too busy wiping my mothers Catholic, Polish tears. Also, I have been really into jigsaw puzzles lately.

People, it is time for healing. I think this is a time for the world to come together, and congratulate John Ratzenberger for this honor of honors. He has come a long way from the loveable, know-it all mailman/barfly Cliff Claven on the sitcom Cheers, to the piggy bank in Toy Story, to one of the miners in the made for tv movie about the miners who got stuck in the well. Now, he gets to be infallible.

Infallible, I learned through 13 years of Cathoic schooling, means that the Pope is like Jesus and can't make mistakes. I also learned that Jesus was just like us and did makes mistakes. Now, I might have questioned such an assertion, but for the painful, painful shocks. Of course I am refering to the special Christening water used for baptizing baby girls, which, for life, initiates a series of tiny shocks (leading to terrible burns) when the faith is questioned.

Infallibility seems really cool. John Paul used it to take some pretty interesting steps forward, steps not unlike the slow, arduous, incredibly tiny baby steps he was limited to during his final years.

So, way to go, Cliffy. Have fun with your hat and the mansions and the gold and the manservants. I am somewhat sure that is what God wants for the Church. Ow. Ow. OWWW. Ok, ok- truly sure. Phew. More gold.