1976 Called, It Wants Its Hairstyle Back.
The circumstances in the world are disheartening; people are scared and fearful as to what the future holds for us. If you follow the news, Twitter, and Facebook, I imagine that you are scared and feel somewhat lost as most people do. On the ground, we are dealing with Covid 19, and locust swarms in Africa, and we have six asteroids this week rocketing to the earth. Thankfully, most of them will miss us, but one "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid," called 2012 XA133, will be screaming at earth. This guy is traveling at 53,000 mph (85280.77 km/hr) and passing us (some would say a little too close for comfort).
This week I thought I would share something that makes me extremely happy. We all could use a laugh, and I am giving you the opportunity to laugh at me. If you don't think this is funny or embarrassing, we both may have issues to address. Luckily for me, most of you are at home working, so I don't get to hear you openly laugh at me, which is better for my ego.
Instead of going through my three life hacks learned from 13 Going on 30, I went with learning with Joe. Joe Dirt is one of my favorite movies. When I tell people this, I love to hear the groans, see the eye rolls, and their open judgment settles into their eyes. I especially love their mocking tone when I explain why it is one of my favorites. Even just thinking about it, I can't help but laugh at myself. Joe Dirt is a silly movie that can be dismissed as immediately as it is brought up, but there is some surprising energy that goes unnoticed because we are so focused on the campy humor and the loser with mullet. Joe is seen as a failure, an absurdity to life, who has been mocked relentlessly throughout his life. I will die believing that this movie is an inspiring tribute to the struggles of life, and Joe gives us a road map on how to deal with these auspicious times. To keep this manageable, I am only focusing on two quotes from the movie.
"You gotta keep on keepin' on." and "Life's a garden: dig it." Joe uses the above quotes as mantras. I don't know who these people are, but "They" say these quotes are trite and cliché, but if you explore them a little deeper, they have a very profound meaning in their simplicity.
YOU GOTTA KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON
Every single one of us deals with two different types of stress. We are either facing stress with things that we can control or stress from those things that we can't control. Do what you can to mitigate stress in your life for those situations that you can't control. Once you've completed all that you can, you have to let it go, and you can't worry about them anymore; they are out of your hands. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Worrying about things you cannot control is taking away valuable energy from what you should be doing. Which is focusing on the things you can control, and what you can control is... you. We can choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances, and we can choose our emotions and our reactions to those emotions. Persistence and perseverance are what allows us to keep on keepin' on.
LIFE'S A GARDEN: DIG IT.
Specifically, you don't find happiness; you create it. Happiness doesn't magically appear on your doorstep one day. You have to work at it every day. Give yourself the opportunity to grow, to be you, and to find something to be grateful for. Our hearts beat! We have love, laughter, friendships, family, language, books, televisions, rooms filled with stuff, computers, compassion, cars, stars to look at, fire, fingernails, coffee, trees, flowers, water, music, medicine, mountains, muffins and doughnuts! We have jobs, and we are employed. We live in a community that is doing tremendous things to help people. Keep moving one step at a time and be grateful for something. Work with what you have and make the best of it.
The bi-level. The Kentucky waterfall. The Missouri Compromise. Hockey hair or a tacky fashion don't. No matter what it's called, there's more to the mullet than just Camaros and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Check out this playlist for more Super Sounds of the '70s and keep on... truckin.