Time again for another section on my thoughts of the times and happenings. Pull up a chair if you wish, lean back in your dark corner, re-adjust your head on your significant others arms and get comfortable. And with that, I shall begin.
As per usual, I have several things on my mind. Varying things, ranging from the ever daunting topic of love to George W. Bush's new memoir to even the bowl of cookie dough ice cream I am enjoying as I type this. But before I address any of these, I would like to take a moment and address a person of inspiration behind my humor, my outlook, and these collective thoughts. Garrison Keillor, I salute you. If you haven't heard him, you should listen. He is a remarkable wit with a voice that I believe is truly unique. His views are put subtly and always with a shade of humor, and with that, I move to this book that I am reading.
Decision Points, the memoir of former president George W. Bush is gracing the floor next to my bed at the moment, a place that is near sacred to me for that is where I keep all books that I have deemed readable and possibly even inspiring. It feels rather extreme to call the fact that this is a very well written book surprising, but I was delighted when I realized it. He talks not of his entire growing up, or of the tedious daily proceedings of his job, but rather he dissects his key decisions he has made in his life, both good and bad. He then explains why he made them, he shows the factors that had influenced him in his life that helped him choose. Whether it be his conversion to Christianity (which is a touchy topic for me, some of you know I am not a believer in modern formal Christianity) or his stopping drinking, everything is discussed in an intriguing manner that flows through his life. One quote has really stuck out to me thus far in my reading, a quote on inspiration: 'But the truth is that i never had to look for a role model. I was the son of George Bush.'
And from there, I will go to the topic of family. It is the holiday season after all. Spending time with family is seemingly universally traditional in many peoples minds, whether that be enjoyable or not quite so. My family at least, is enjoyable for the most part . The Wollams are a special breed of people. You see, by default we are strong willed, relatively intelligent, and share the belief that each of us is more intelligent then the other. This leads to interesting conversation of course. You see, obviously, we are rarely all right, which again is an issue. For being the strong willed, intelligent Wollams that we believe we are, by being wrong you are a let down, a failure not so much in the sense of every one's opinion around you, but merely as a fact of your existence. You see, success is not judged necessarily by your wealth or your job or education in my family. It is rather judged by influence. If you can be wrong and convince everyone around you that you are right, then you are successful. It is a brilliant concept, and I thank my father for passing down this brilliant and blissfully consistent way of life down to me. For after all, behind every cynic, there is a father.
And so we are off to maybe the most cynical of all topics known to man, which of course is love. Its actually probably a stupid thing to discuss, because those who know it know it well, and those who are not yet familiar with it... well, let us say it would be easier to explain colors to the blind. I suppose that is more of my goal to address here, not really love, but those who are in it and out of it, those who search for it with every breath and those who seem to even fear it. Love is used all the time as a word. Between family, between friends, between couples, the word love is thrown around as if it is the most common thing on the planet, and at some level, I will agree that it is. To love is as basic of an instinct as to search out food and water. We need it to survive, surely John Lennon wasn't the only one to realize that. But at the same time, the word has been watered down, the emotion almost too common. 'True love', as I believe it is called, is rarely searched for anymore. Few have the patience, or maybe its the maturity they lack, to truly find it. As Americans, we support passion for the bigger, and thus we have more relationships, and many more divorces then most of the world. What are we at, a 50% divorce rate? That means half the people out there move to soon, take a leap of faith with nothing to catch them, and they plummet to the ground. But on the other end of the spectrum, there are those who fear mislabeling what they have, they fear 'fake' love so much that they never find the real thing. This is possibly the saddest of all things to me because it is correlative to the ignorance of the already mentioned. This is a result of society, and we must question our actions when the adults separate them selves at such an alarming rate that the next generation is afraid to move at all.
From there I will conclude with mention of a very common guilty pleasure, cookie dough ice cream. I love, oh wait, there is that word again... I greatly enjoy this treat. It is, for a moment, divine on my taste buds. But like everything else food based around me, it soon fades away. This, I suppose, is like many peoples love, like their ambition. Sadly, the issue cannot be solved by choosing another flavor, even another course. We must realize that many things in life, much like even the most wonderful food, will pass away. What lasts is whats important, what lingers over time. I guess that's why I'm not really opposed to people breaking down. When the pieces all fall, when the proverbial cookie crumbles I guess, we are eventually able to pick ourselves back up. There is almost never as much there afterwards as there was in the beginning, but what is left is real
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