Monday, June 15, 2009 - How does it happen that we make claim to a balanced life and yet the scales are heavily weighted to one side? While we're piling things on to the trays of that scale, how do we miss the fact that we've put a pea on one side, and bricks on the other? At what point do you recognize the unbalance in your life and book a tee time?
These may seem like esoteric questions to fuel a conversation but it is more a full out cry for help. At some point in your life you need someone to grab you by the back of the collar and pull you away from the day to day and force you to jump to the other side of the scale.
In the grand scheme of things, I think as humans we all crave the same thing... love, acceptance, belonging... and time to experience all those things away from the office. A balance of work and play, family and friends, asleep and awake - often allude us. Not because we don't seek them, but because we don't have time to seek them out. There is a cosmic irony to our desires and our realities. We may want the same things, but then we also want responsibility and success... which we define as having achieved that balance, but in reality means we work too much to have time to succeed.
Yesterday in Vancouver, several main streets (including Main Street) were closed to traffic to celebrate Car Free Day. Funnily enough, these events were so big, that people drove to these events to celebrate. The side streets and alleys were full of cars parked to enjoy the festivities. They'd have taken public transport but alas, the buses were re-routed because they couldn't get down these main streets either. I get that sometimes to re-balance the scales you have to swing the pendulum to the other extreme... but I sure enjoyed the irony.
And if that isn't enough, today is No More TV Day... as I saw advertised on TV this morning. Now I'm sure there were better ways to advertise this, but honestly, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the day the same. So today I spent the day looking for the ironies in life. I found the time to write about them, but ironically enough, I was too busy to notice any. Now isn't that just as clear as mud?
These may seem like esoteric questions to fuel a conversation but it is more a full out cry for help. At some point in your life you need someone to grab you by the back of the collar and pull you away from the day to day and force you to jump to the other side of the scale.
In the grand scheme of things, I think as humans we all crave the same thing... love, acceptance, belonging... and time to experience all those things away from the office. A balance of work and play, family and friends, asleep and awake - often allude us. Not because we don't seek them, but because we don't have time to seek them out. There is a cosmic irony to our desires and our realities. We may want the same things, but then we also want responsibility and success... which we define as having achieved that balance, but in reality means we work too much to have time to succeed.
Yesterday in Vancouver, several main streets (including Main Street) were closed to traffic to celebrate Car Free Day. Funnily enough, these events were so big, that people drove to these events to celebrate. The side streets and alleys were full of cars parked to enjoy the festivities. They'd have taken public transport but alas, the buses were re-routed because they couldn't get down these main streets either. I get that sometimes to re-balance the scales you have to swing the pendulum to the other extreme... but I sure enjoyed the irony.
And if that isn't enough, today is No More TV Day... as I saw advertised on TV this morning. Now I'm sure there were better ways to advertise this, but honestly, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the day the same. So today I spent the day looking for the ironies in life. I found the time to write about them, but ironically enough, I was too busy to notice any. Now isn't that just as clear as mud?
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