The Mostly True Confessions Of A Festivus Miracle Man

Been listening to ELO and The Moody Blues with a smattering of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash throughout the day.

Middle sister is in town along with her entire brood and I have taken immense pleasure in watching my children play with their cousins not to mention the joy of getting to speak with nieces and nephews I don’t see often enough.

Good Old Uncle Jack listened to the high school boys talk about their lives and smiled as the middle school kids known as niece and daughter compared notes about their schools.

The kids get bigger, parents get older and time moves faster.

Musical Intermission

• Telephone Line– Electric Light Orchestra
• 6th Avenue Heartbreak– The Wallflowers
• Thank You– Led Zeppelin
• Adagio For Strings– New Zealand Symphony
• Against The Wind– Bob Seger

In a chunk of hours morning will arrive and the four-day break from my normal work routine will end and almost normal life will resume.

Almost normal being the operative term because those of us who have to report for duty are doing so during the odd limbo like time of the final week of the year.

It is a time when many people have checked out and even though they man their stations the reality is their minds are far away and the desire to work is farther yet.

This  particular time of year has been pretty good to me because historically speaking it is when I have found ways to tap into the magic of the moment and created some pretty big success stories.

But it is also a time where I find it harder to focus and maybe that is why I find myself staring at my stats, trying to decide if there is a particular theme I should focus upon, pointing and clicking at old posts to see if maybe they hold the answers.

1. All I Want Is You
2. It Burns
3. I Had a Dream
4.  Just a Kiss-You are My Air 
5. Mean Girls Come From Mean Moms
6. Plenty Of Time
7. Why Your Post Sucks and Everyone Hates Your Blog

The Mostly True Confessions Of A Festivus Miracle Man

Steiner the minor once asked me if I could point to a single trait or characteristic that has served me well and I said it was my ability to grind things out.

“I go the distance and sometimes even a bit farther.”

“Dad, what does that mean?”

“It means that I don’t rely solely upon talent or solely upon effort. I do what is required and when I need to be relentless, well I am relentless.”

And then I told him that it hadn’t always led to victory and that sometimes heroes fall…but not always.

Not always visited me last week and presented me with a Festivus miracle.

I pulled a rabbit out of my hat and did something that I had thought was damn near impossible.

When I got the word I made a point to tell my son, not to brag but because I wanted to use it as a teaching moment and show him the benefit of being ready to jump on opportunity.

I wanted him to see that hard work helps us make our own luck and create opportunity.

And I wanted to point out that even if I had failed I would have gone to sleep that night knowing that I did everything I could do to make it work.

When he asked if that made failure better I said it didn’t take away the frustration or pain but it did ease the sting.

What Comes Next?

Got that “I am running with the moon” feeling now that I once wrote about floating through my head.

It is different from what I described there but similar in the sense that I feel like bolts of energy are shooting from my fingertips.

This feeling that if I focused hard enough I could fabricate lightning bolts out of the electricity flowing through my fingertips and that I could fling them from atop my own Mount Olympus.

And even though I know it sounds ridiculous and somewhat foolish to say such things I do because this blog is where we sometimes share the silly and sublime material that lies just below the surface.

It is where we sometimes write from the perspective of the Phantom of the Opera or from the role of the hero.

It is where we do our best to just write and not worry about whether it will be well received or scoffed at.

And on the verge of a new year it is impossible not to ask what comes next, especially when it  feels like something massive is looming in the distance.

I am ready for it even though I am not quite sure what it is not because I am a master of the feats of strength but because the last 10 years or so have prepared me.

All of the crazy changes and upheaval have made it easier for me to shift to the right or sidestep to the left without fear of what might happen if I stumble.

Don’t misunderstand this to mean that your old insouciant friend doesn’t care if he stumbles because it never feels good to step on a Lego with your barefoot or stub your toe on the curb.

But if you do as Teddy suggests and put yourself in a position to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves you can also be prepared to roll with the unexpected difficulties that sometimes visit.

“Wide differences of opinion in matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.”
― Theodore Roosevelt, The Man In The Arena: Speeches and Essays by Theodore Roosevelt