Chucking it all

Yeah, so it's been a few days...  Our entire family loves Oregon, and it's been a while since we've been, so we spent a long weekend in Oregon for my wife's birthday.  I'm happy to report that there was weather (typical and welcomed), that we had a wonderful time (we've never been disappointed)... and that WE DIDN'T WANT TO COME BACK (no surprise here)!

Anytime we go up there, we dream of chucking it all - quitting our jobs, leaving California once and for all, and going someplace "to live and do what we really want."  It's not just me.  I am prone to bouts of ants-in-the-pants, likely an effect of growing up a mortgage brat, attending three different schools in less than a year, going from DC to Michigan to Texas as my dad moved up the ladder in the mortgage business.  No, it's not just me, because my upbringing is different than my wife's, and she always buys into the dream, too.  I would imagine it's a pretty common occurrence among the general population.

So why are we all so afraid to - in the immortal words of the great philosopher, Nike - "Just do it"?

I am of the firm opinion that in order to learn and grow, to be better humans, to really EXPERIENCE life, we need to move, change, and see and touch different things.  But this is where the pesky quandary of life always seems to elbow its way in...  We have a family.  We have responsibilities.  We have cats. To top it off, in our particular situation, our savings was wiped out after lengthy bouts of unemployment and some less-than-scrupulous "friends" of ours (now in federal prison).   We can't just uproot the whole kitten-caboodle (literally) and fly by the seat of our pants.  Can we???

My wife and I "chucked it all" once before, not long after we got married.  It was my doing - a week after a phone call from my best friend who'd just landed himself a job in LA, and I was driving from Chicago to LA with only my clothes, my computer, a small stack of scripts, and a handful of contacts.  While we are a few years older, we have re-demonstrated this streak several times since.  And, I'm happy to report, we've never ended up worse as a result.

It's been proven over and over that life is a web of paths.  To borrow from earlier posts, life is a spreadsheet, full of IF/THEN formulas.  We can also talk about windows, doors, etc., etc.  The heart and mind bounce you back and forth between what's best for you and yours, what's "expected" from society, and what's "possible" (in oh so many ways).  In an earlier draft of "Somewhere Along the Way," the main character, Thomas, shares life lessons with his 21-year-old son:  "It's OK to stand in the middle of the road to figure out which way to go - but don't do it too long.  Because then life will just pass you by..."

Forget the horror stories that your mom and Hollywood taught you and go with me here...  Picture yourself as a hitchhiker, walking along some grand, cosmic thoroughfare, with your thumb out.  It's important that you're WALKING, with your THUMB OUT - otherwise, you're just a spectator, letting life's possibilities pass by. 

I signed on to my usual websites this morning in my search for my "next thing" and saw something posted by another friend, GB, this morning.  A quick web search attributes this beaut to George Harrison:  "Life flows on within you, and without you."

Couldn't have said it better myself.