I’m now 65 and I have realized that over the past 20 years I have started to take less risks. I am starting to feel boring. I do NOT want to join a retirement community or start wearing socks with my sandals. I feel that my nads have started to shrink. I just don’t have them like I used to. It’s not that I am afraid to take risks, fun risks, not stupid risks; I’m just less excited by them. This lead me on to an internet search of why older people tend to take less risks than younger people. It is due to a substance in our brain called dopamine. For every 10 years that we age, we lose X % of dopamine, the substance that causes us to be excited by risk taking. It is known as the pleasure hormone. When we work out or do a cardio workout we experience higher levels of dopamine, especially if we work out hard enough to enter the “zone”.
As we get older, one would think that due to having fewer years in front of us than behind us, one would be more prone to increase risk. What do we have to lose? When I was younger and had less dough, I wouldn’t think twice of buying an old house just to flip it or buy a used car that I had always wanted only to sell it 2 months later. Now, even though I can afford it, the idea hasn’t even crossed my mind. This realization today was a major downer. At first I chastised myself for this lack of chutzpah, but after doing a little research I realize that it is due to this unfair waning of the hormone dopamine.
I’ve also noticed this among my peers. A couple of months ago my wife gave me a birthday present that allowed me to race super cars around a formula 1 style raceway. I gave it all I could give. I only got up to 140 mph, but it was a blast. I shared this with my friends who are my age and they looked at me like I was crazy. I then accused them of not having any balls, but today realized that I have also declined in risk taking activities as well. I don’t like it in my friends and I don’t like it in myself. At first I thought that it was just clinging to life that made me and my friends act like scaredy cats, but it’s not that. It’s dopamine leaking out of us all so slowly that we are like the proverbial frog being slowly boiled in a pot of water, yet never noticing it.
I would wager that most people don’t mind the slow acceptance of the safe life, but for people like myself that have learned to fly, buy and sell homes at the drop of a hat, learn to do pairs figure skating at the age of 45, quit a successful job and start up a new business, create my own rocket fuel and fly rockets, playing it safe doesn’t suit me. I detest it. I just didn’t notice that I was becoming that proverbial frog.
With all of this being said, as of January 1, I will begin to make a radical change. I will chronicle it as often as I can. I will “rage, rage against the dying of the light”.
What is consciousness? Is it the same as someone’s soul? Are we simply a biological creature with a brain. When our brain stops working, does our consciousness stop? Until recently, physicists didn’t really get into that sort of discussion, yet with new ideas coming to the forefront in quantum physics, the line dividing consciousness and physics are getting blurry.
The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, it simply changes into another form of matter. If you take a piece of wood and burn it, does the matter, the piece of wood vanish? Well, the matter that you once viewed, a piece of wood is no longer in that form. It is now composed of heat, ashes, and smoke. The total matter did not disappear, it simply changed into other forms of matter. If this is a known law of matter, then why should our soul, spirit, or consciousness be any different?
All chemical equations must be balanced to preserve matter
Coincidence or a deeper meaning?
Today I was at a coffee shop chatting with a friend of mine. Somehow we got on the subject of Alaska. His father had been stationed there. I told him that my father had been stationed at the same Army base. We determined that both his father and mine were probably at that base at the same time. Small world, huh? Well, that’s just a nice coincidence. I then told him that we had been to Juno and Ketchikan in Alaska a number of years ago. A few seconds later his phone beeped. It was one of his former students on Facebook sending him a picture of herself and her boyfriend. Guess where they were? They were sending him a picture of them in Ketchikan Alaska. Was this also just a coincidence? Of all the places in the world, why Ketchikan? Is there a universal consciousness that entered my consciousness from his former student letting me know that she was about to ping him and somehow my subconscious knew it, thus we started the whole conversation about Alaska? Ok, I know that is maybe trying to connect the dots too much, but this has occurred many times in the course of a month.
Has this happened to you?
Have you ever had someone just pop into your mind and then within a few minutes they call you? Typically it is someone that you don’t talk to on a regular basis. I know that I have. Usually, the conversation goes like this in my head, “I wonder how David is doing. I haven’t talked to him in a while.” In the next few moments, my phone rings, and on the other end, it is David. I have spoken to multiple people that have said that this happens to them as well. To me, this is not a coincidence. It is them thinking of us first, then their thoughts somehow connect to our own.
In the beginning…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If God created all of the heavens and all of the earths or planets, and it originated with Him, then there was one source of creation for the entire universe. His consciousness created the universe. It was one consciousness, yet shared with us. Everything that has been made was from this one consciousness, His spirit. In Jeremiah 1:5, God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” God is saying, before you were born I knew you. How could God know Jeremiah before he was born? The only way that could be is if Jeremiah’s soul, spirit or consciousness was in existence before his actual body was manifested or created. As matter cannot be created nor destroyed, maybe souls or consciousness cannot be created nor destroyed either. Maybe they were all created at one time, only waiting until there was a body to be inhabited by them. Deep thought, huh? I don’t care if you believe in God or the Big Bang theory. It all started with one source, one action, one moment therefore everything that emanated was at one time in the same place.
We are all tied together
Somehow, whether we like it or not, we are all tied together and not just with one another. Everything that is in existence or has been in existence has some sort of relationship with each other. We live in a very temporal world. We go through our day not thinking of these types of things, yet what we can’t see is more real than what we can see. Our bodies are temporary, but our soul or consciousness is not. That is something that death can’t destroy. Our body is hardware. Our consciousness is the software. Without the software, the hardware is just a bunch of parts. The good thing about this software is that it isn’t bound by hardware. It can exist on its own. When someone says “You haven’t seen the last of me!” they don’t realize how true they are. You are here forever, just not in the skin that you are currently wearing. Deep thoughts, huh?
I’ve wanted to drive ever since my dad let me sit on his lap behind the wheel of his 1952 Edsel. The automobile was our passport to get out of the city and discover new lands. Growing up in a relatively small town, the routine sites and sounds got to be rather boring, even for a kid. Owning a car meant you could escape your normal surroundings and explore. Even Chevrolet hired Dinah Shore to sing their jingle, “See the USA in your Chevrolet.” I don’t know about Elon Musk, but my first ride was a go-kart.
My dad built the first hybrid
When I was 5 years of age, my dad bought me a push pedal car. It was a great little car, even though my little legs gave out trying to pedal it through the grass in our small yard. I guess my dad saw me struggling to pedal it and got to thinking.
He had an old self propelled reel style lawn mower that he was tired of sharpening the blades on. The motor on it still worked. What if I could make a go-kart out of the self propelled mower and the pedal cart. My dad didn’t own a lot of tools but he did own a hack saw and bailing wire. With those two things in hand, he sawed the pedal cart in half where the rear wheels were. He then sawed the handles of the self propelled mower off. Taking the two parts, he wired them together to make my first go kart.
Skip ahead 10 years
Skipping ahead 10 years to my teenage years, being able to legally drive a car was still a few years away, not that this kept me from driving! Somehow, I had to find a way to be able to drive. I needed something that I could drive legally. What I needed was a real go-kart. My dad still had that old engine from the reel lawn mower that he had converted into a motorized scooter. All I needed was a go-kart frame. My job at the chicken farm didn’t pay much. At $1 per hour, all I could afford was $25 for an old dilapidated go-kart frame. The right front wheel didn’t touch the ground due to someone running the go-kart into a tree which had bent the frame. The front tire was about 1 inch off the ground, but it was a beauty to me, even painted baby blue.
Frankenstein #2
As if tying a pedal cart and a lawnmower wasn’t bad enough, my dad was able to attach the old mower engine to the back of the go-kart and somehow rigged it up so that I had a real gas pedal and brakes. To me, this wasn’t a Frankenstein, this was a car worthy of the Indy 500. By then, we had moved to the country with gravel roads and a field next to our new home. I sped up and down the gravel roads and in a big loop in the field to head back down the road in front of our house. We lived in a sleepy town, so there really wasn’t any traffic. Everything was great until word got out that Gill owned a go-kart.
A free attraction
A number of the neighbor kids came over and asked if they could ride my go-kart. Hesitantly I let them ride it a few times, but gasoline wasn’t free and this was MY go-kart. After a couple of days, I put that to a stop telling them to go build their own go-kart. My dad got word that I had closed up shop, not allowing other kids to ride it and I was told that I must share and let them have turns.
There, stood a line 4 to 5 kids deep with me maintaining this free attraction and having to give driving instructions to the kids. It wasn’t long before I was out of gas. I told the kids, “Hey, you supply the gas and you can ride.” Amazingly, they all left and none of them returned with gas cans. I guess as long as the ride was free, they didn’t mind riding.
The need for speed
After a couple of weeks, it seemed that my go-kart had gotten slower and slower. In all actuality, it was going the same speed. I was just ready for more speed. Noticing that there was this wire near the carburetor that if I pulled it, the engine revved up like crazy. I wondered why it didn’t sound like that when I use the gas pedal. I found a way to take the throttle cable and attach it to this wire and then to my gas pedal. Now, I was able to increase my speed by almost 33%.
I was zooming up and down the road. This was great! Why didn’t the manufacturer of the motor done that originally? What I didn’t realize was that this was the engine governor. It kept the engine at a normal rpm while the engine was under load. To me, it was free power, to the manufacturer, it was a way to keep the engine from blowing up when not under load.
Back to the drawing board
Now that my engine was an anchor, I was back to the drawing board. I had a go-kart frame that was engineless. I needed to be able to save up enough money to buy another engine, but making only $1 per hour, I couldn’t afford a new engine.
By now I was in high school, still with no drivers license. There was a kid who was a senior that raced go-karts. I found out his name and went and located him during lunch one school day. I explained my dilemma. I’m thinking that he felt sorry for me. He was from a family of mechanics and racing was their middle name. He said that he had a used 2 stroke racing engine that he could part with for $20. I was exuberant. After a couple of weeks, I could afford that. I promised to buy the motor as soon as I could earn the money for it. After a few weeks of working, the day arrived that the transaction would occur. He delivered the engine to my house explaining that a 2 stroke motor required oil to be mixed with the gasoline as well as other tips.
Getting hooked up
My dad was busy with his barbershop quartet singing and didn’t have the time to help me with my go-kart any longer. He told me that this time, it was up to me to get the engine hooked up to the frame. This was when I realized that I would need actual tools. A hammer, screwdriver and a pair of pliers wasn’t going to cut it.
I bought my first set of wrenches and ratchets on sale for $10 and felt like a real mechanic. My dad had a power drill which was needed to drill new holes in the go-kart frame to be able to mount the engine to the rear frame. This I was able to do as well as attach the chain to the sprocket. What I couldn’t figure out was how to connect the throttle control to the gas pedal. Knowing the shortest distance between 2 points was a straight line, a piece of wire from an old picture frame did the trick. I was ready to roll!
Let’s wake up the neighbors
It was Saturday morning. My go-kart was ready. All I needed was 2 cycle oil to mix with the gasoline in the gas can. My buddy had given me a partial bottle of 2 cycle oil when he sold me the motor. I carefully added the correct amount as he had informed me. Pouring that mixture into the small gas tank on the 2 stroke motor and I was just about finished. I pushed the go-kart to the top of the driveway, took the pull rope and gave it a tug. Nothing happened. I gave it a little gas and pulled again. Suddenly the 2 stroke motor sprung to life. It made this loud raspy rat-a-tat sound like a chain saw. I didn’t realize that chain saws also used 2 stroke motors, I just knew that chain saws were loud.
I positioned myself in the metal seat of the go-kart, using an old cushion for a little padding on the metal seat frame. Carefully, I pulled the wire that I had connected to the 2 stroke motor throttle control and the rear wheel of the go-kart spun like crazy. Gravel was spinning high into the air behind the go-kart. I finally pulled it just a wee bit to get it to finally grab the gravel road and head down the lane.
I had only pulled the wire a little bit and I was going faster than the old lawn mower engine at it’s top ungoverned speed. What would happen if I pulled it all the way? With one hand I held the steering wheel, with the other hand I pulled the wire. The go-kart took off. The wind was blowing against my face. Water was starting to stream from the corners of my eyes due to the speed of the go-kart. Three wheels were on the ground with the 4th wheel touching only when I would head around corners. I was in go-kart heaven.
Part of the chain gang
Due to my limited amount of tools and how I had attached the motor to the go-kart, whenever I hit a big pump, the chain would pop off. This would leave the engine revving wildly high with the go-kart slowing to a stop. I limped the go-kart back home to realize that the L bracket that the engine was mounted on wasn’t really strong enough and that this was going to be a regular problem. What was needed was a thick gauge bracket, a welder and more tools than I had. I figured out how to reattach the chain and settled to just live with the chain popping off on every ride.
I was the talk of the neighborhood, but not in a good way. It seems that my early morning weekend drives around the neighborhood was too loud for the neighbors. They complained to my parents that it was bad enough to have to listen to the wind of a chain saw when neighbors would use their chain saw to fell a tree, but to listen to one running up and down the street day in and day out was enough to drive them crazy. The complaint department told me that my go-kart was grounded and my days of running unfettered through the neighborhood was over. I put the go-kart under the front porch where it sat for months and months.
During this time, I had turned 16 and acquired my drivers license. One of my first jobs working at a gas station, I had my eyes on a Chevy Belair Station Wagon which an older fellow employee owned. He saw the stars in my eyes and it didn’t take much for him to convince me to purchase it from him. That was a quick $300 he pocketed.
All good things must come to an end
By now, I had a car, a girlfriend and a job that paid $3.25 per hour. It was time to grow up. After several years, I found someone to take the old go-kart off my hands. He had a son that was around 14 and he wanted to go through this rite of passage as I did. I think I sold it for $25.
I will always remember my old baby blue go-kart. From riding in my dad’s Edsel, riding in a pedal cart/mower hybrid all the way up to my current ride, a Tesla. Hmm, I wonder if Elon Musk ever had a go-kart? For me, the go-kart holds fond memories of learning how to drive the way that most kids do not. I learned a lot of lessons along the way, the most important…….buy a quiet muffler!
I have come to wonder if I am like the proverbial cow that wants to break through the fence and try the grass on the other side of the fence. Is the grass actually greener and tastier or is it all in my mind? Maybe I have the mind like a member of the bovine family. For the past 12 or 13 years, it seems that after about 4 years, I’m ready to move to a new location and I’m not just talking about the next town. It seems that I become disenchanted with the town, the people, the climate, or any number of things. I love to discover new people and places. It takes a while to get the feel of a place. You can’t really do that on a 2-week vacation. Fortunately, I own a business where I can pretty much work anywhere so this makes it pretty easy to do.
Photo credit James Rickwood
This time, it’s a vocational edit
I am trying to break out of my vocation or at least add to what I am already doing. You see, when I was young, I had two dreams; to develop a new form of propulsion for space travel and own my own theme park. These may seem like two entirely different pursuits, but each has similar characteristics. -Research -Creativity -Risk-taking -Innovation Both of these pursuits require a good amount of imagination, yet neither is for the faint of heart. One requires a significant amount of brainpower including physics, engineering, and math. The other requires lots of money. Actually both require money but opening a theme park, that requires a LOT of money.
Routine is good, just not for me
Are you the type of person that loves to create, yet wants to leave the daily running of things to someone else? That’s me. I love brainstorming, troubleshooting, and coming up with “What if” type of thoughts. I’ve done a lot of different things in my life. I have been blessed to have many different talents and have put pretty much all of them to use at one time or another. For many, having to come up with new ideas each day gives them a headache. They are very happy to know what is expected of them each day and they do it well. At the end of the day, they feel fulfilled.
Don’t get me wrong, I have routines. For example, I go to the gym regularly, have my morning coffee, pray, meditate, and enjoy a nice beverage in the evening. I also routinely sit down and write down ideas each morning.
I love big projects and I cannot lie
I’ve always been one for big projects. When I was a kid, I built model rockets. You know the ones where you put an engine in them and launch them into the sky. I quickly built many of the store-bought ones but they just weren’t big enough and didn’t go high enough. One day, I had that “what if” moment and said to myself, “If one engine is good, 3 is better.” I then constructed a rocket that was 3 times as high as the store-bought ones, installed 3 rocket engines that would fire simultaneously, and launched it successfully. Getting that out of the way, I went and got two 12′ carpet tubes to build a 24′ rocket. This time, model rocket engines were not powerful enough so I decided to make my own rocket fuel. Let’s just put it this way, it didn’t end well.
The grass isn’t greener, it’s just different
If there is a zany idea out there, I will come up with it. I just need to find other zany minded individuals like me. I’m not sure where one would find these types of individuals. We should start some sort of club. There must be other “cows” out there like me that are stretching their necks trying to find that perfect clump of green grass. In the meantime, I will come up with more ideas and try and figure out how to implement them. So, if you see me leaning out the car window like a dog licking the air, it’s just me looking for that greener clump of grass.
Is this like day 1,000 for Covid 19 here in the U.S.? It sure seems like it. For months we have been Zooming and doing all other type of virtual meetings. I handled this for the first few months ok, but this is going beyond my ability to be isolated. I don’t think that I am alone. Even the most introverted people are slowly going crazy. What I have not seen much of in the news, is the emotional damage this virus is placing on the world. There is no official end date. Nobody knows when it will end. This is not emotionally healthy.
Connect the dots
Based on my own emotions, there is a lot of angst with not knowing when something like this is going to end. The future is very uncertain. We are told that when a vaccine is created, this will end, but there is no real date on that either because they don’t know when and if a successful vaccine will be found. There is no guarantee. For us personally, we have been keeping busy with little projects to keep our minds off of the virus, but we don’t have any clue when all of our big projects which have been put on hold will ever be resumed. This type of uncertainty causes anger as well as depression. Over the past 30 days our country has experienced a level of anger and hostility that I have not seen in over 50 years. I’m not saying that the public outcry over what happened to George Floyd is not called for, but the resulting looting and anger that has poured out is also due to people being uncertain about their future as well as pent up frustrations over the virus.
Why all of the unkindness?
There is such a lack of grace, love and otherwise kindness going on. Instead of realizing that Covid 19 and the restrictions placed upon us are causing all of us to be very short fused, we feel that our feelings are 100% justified, no matter what the subject is.
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without a vision, the people perish.” That’s what is going on. We don’t have a vision, we don’t have an end date, we don’t see the finish line. Maybe it should be, “Without an end date, the people go crazy.”
What’s the point?
After an extended time of putting off trips, weddings, vacations and every other type of activity that requires people to congregate, it’s rather pointless to plan any event. All of us need something to look forward to. During the work week, we look forward to the weekend. When there are so few things that you can do during the weekend, this has made the weekend a non-event. Vacation, summer camp, family reunions or going to a theme park are all out the window. Even going to your local zoo has become virtual or so restricted that it’s not even fun. The emotional toil that this virus has put upon the world is worse than the virus in my opinion. How long can we go on without a finish line?
Mask vs no mask
Do you actually think this crazy Karen mentality is all about wearing a mask? No, it’s the result of the emotional toil this virus is taking on people. When we have no control over our lives, we project our frustrations onto others. We don’t even feel as if we have control over what we wear which is a very personal choice. We resent that this virus is making us wear masks in the first place. It’s not the mask, it’s the control that this virus has over us. We are angry at something that we cannot see nor we can control.
We need emotional support
What we need is emotional support for the feelings that all of us are going through. The media doesn’t help with their sensationalist type of reporting. Everything has become click bait, feeding on the angst that we all feel. We need for all leaders to talk about hope, loving one another and giving one another the benefit of the doubt. Most importantly, to be able to find some way to give all of us a vision. We need to find a means to connect safely in person, not by Zoom, so that we can share each other’s pain while we figure out how to put an end to this nightmare that we are all living in.
Would you even consider getting into your vehicle and starting to drive without having a destination? Even if you just wanted to get out, you have some sort of idea about which direction you are headed. What I am talking about is to not even have a clue. You just get in the car and start driving. If you saw someone you knew at a stop light and they asked you “Hey, where are you headed?” Would you admit, “I have no clue, I just put it in drive to see where the car takes me!” If that sounds crazy, then why would you do the same thing when you wake up in the morning and don’t bother to plan your day? If you already have a plan, that’s one thing, but to just let the day sort of run on auto pilot is really throwing away a day of your life.
I’m not throwing stones here
I have done the exact same thing. Today is one of those days. I didn’t have a plan and now the day is almost over. I threw away today. I’m trying to redeem the day by writing this and admitting that I failed to do what I try and do every morning. This has really worked for me. (except for today)
Rocks, gravel, sand and water
Image by childrensministry.com
Someone told me this analogy a while back. If someone gave you rocks, gravel, sand and water and tells you to put them all in a large 5 gallon bucket, but you get to choose the order, could you do it? Ok, let’s give it a try. You add gravel, sand, then fill it with water, now for the rocks. Whoops, the rocks won’t fit. Ok, let’s try it again. This time you add the sand, water, gravel and now for the large rocks. Dang, only 2 will fit. You now find out that the rocks were what needed to be included in the bucket the most. Those were the most important material.
Life is like that. We have rocks, which are the big things that need to be done during a day; the hard talk, the project that must be done, the time to think of a new creative concept. Many times we fill up our day with gravel, sand and water not allowing any room for the rocks, those important things that we needed to get done that day.
Give this a try
Tomorrow morning, before you put your day in drive, sit down for a minimum of 5 minutes and try to list the two or three big rocks that need to get put in your bucket. Sometimes I only come up with one, but if I do this, I find that the gravel, sand and water doesn’t seem to get in the way. I feel as if my day is more complete and I end up with a greater sense of satisfaction when my head hits the pillow.
I told this analogy to someone at the coffee shop a few weeks ago. As I sat there with my notebook a few days later they came up to me and asked what I was doing. “Gathering my rocks for the day.” I said. They smiled knowing what I meant and walked away. Today would not be a wasted day.
Have you ever been under pressure to get a project started? And then, once almost delivered, have to put it on hold at the very last moment? Better yet, have you ever had a spark of creative genius that kept you up at night? You can’t rest until you act on it, only to have outside forces tell you to wait. Welcome to the Covid 19 Zone.
Image by Merlin Collaboration
This is not a dream
Nope, this is not a dream. It’s more like a nightmare. For the first 30 days of this pandemic, I awoke each morning thinking that the previous days events were simply a dream. It took me 5 minutes to shake the sleep from my mind, only to realize that this is reality. Covid 19 was going to disrupt my plans for the foreseeable future. I can’t fast forward life and relocate to a new city, state or even country. That isn’t going to make this go away. All of us are in The Covid 19 Zone. As the phrase goes “We are all in this together”. By the way, that phrase at first sounds warm and fuzzy as if we are all pulling together for a common goal. The reality of it is that we are all mired in a deep pool of poo. It stinks and nobody gets a free pass.
An idea for an industry that is on hold
My genius idea that I have is now officially on hold. The industry that my idea is for is Theme Parks. The Covid 19 Zone has thrown spike strips into the path of my idea to stop me dead in my tracks.
Spike strips are great to stop a moving vehicle. Covid 19 is a great way to prevent people on the entire planet from assembling together. That is most of the time. Scores of industries are being hamstrung by something that most of us didn’t see coming. We have been told that we were overdue for a pandemic as the last one occurred over 100 years ago, the Spanish flu of 1918. This type of thing NEVER comes at a convenient time. It just shows up like a dreaded house guest that doesn’t know when they are wearing out their welcome!
5 things to do if you are chomping at the bit
If you find yourself in a similar position like me, waiting to give birth to that new idea and feel as though you are a horse chomping at the bit, here are some ideas to help while you wait.
Make a game plan or outline from start to finish of what your project looks like once it is completed.
Spend the time now to research the talent and assets that will be needed to pull it off.
Is this a solo project or will you need to collaborate with others? If you will need to collaborate with others, choose these people and then come up with why this project will benefit both them and you.
Spend time looking at similar ideas. What worked for them? What didn’t work for them? How is yours different?
Realize that you may not be the only one with this idea and that The Covid 19 Zone may be giving you an opportunity to put your project through a well needed training to work out all the kinks so that it is ready when we get to the other side.
This too shall pass
One way or the other, this too shall pass, hopefully sooner than later. The big question is when. If this virus slowly fizzles due to the world shutting down until the virus can’t find any new hosts that is one way. I’m hoping and praying for a vaccine that will eradicate this unwelcome guest as was done for polio and small pox.
Until then, don’t give up on your idea, just use the time wisely and work on it so that when it’s your time to shine, you have done your homework and are first in line.
I can’t wait for Disney World to reopen. Once it does, it will feel as some normalcy will have returned to our nation, not ignoring what has gone on these past 3 months or even the past several weeks. I know that there are angry people everywhere, some rightfully so. Even when visiting the happiest place on earth people get cranky, but it does seem that we all get along or try to get along when visiting Disney World. I am so excited, that I have created a countdown clock below for when the parks reopen. Enjoy!
This seems to be a headline no matter what news source you open. The Disney parks are not like your local pub or restaurant that you are eagerly awaiting to open. For all of these people chomping at the bit for the Disney parks to reopen, it has to be something more. I mean, why does it really matter when Disney parks will reopen? When it comes to Disney theme parks, you either love them or you hate them. Personally, I was just reintroduced to them about ten years ago. We don’t live close to any of the parks so it had to be something that we planned and saved money to do. The last time that I had been there was probably 10 or more years ago and before that, I was 14. For me, the resurging interest is all of the memories that flooded back. Those memories from my visit when I was 14, visiting with my parents, but was it only memories that drew me back? No, for me, it is more.
The real reason we can’t wait for Disneyland to reopen
I think the real reason why I can’t wait for Disney parks to reopen along with many others is for the following reason. Disney does such a great job at making your visit feel as if the world is standing still. They have made sure to create barriers to keep the view of the outside world hidden. This helps to keep distance between the visitor and the real world. For those of us that go to the parks to find that experience, we know that our troubles will be waiting for us once we return home. Yet for a few days, we at least can ignore them.
We are all feeling stressed
Let’s face it, we are all feeling a good amount of stress during this Pandemic. Many people are concerned about their health and the health of their loved ones. We also know that there are so many businesses that are struggling. Many of these businesses will be unable to go back to business as normal. Disney itself is losing $30 million per DAY. For those of us that love Disney, we aren’t sure what the future holds for our escape from reality. We want some normalcy in our lives and until Disney opens its parks, the world just won’t seem normal to many of us.
The happiest place on earth
It’s no reason that Disney parks are called the happiest place on earth. I think that many of us that frequent the parks want to return to a familiar place. We know exactly what to expect when we return, we want that familiar smell when we walk into the Polynesian Resort. We don’t want them to change the song during our ride through ‘It’s a Small World’ or ‘The Tiki Room’. Many would ask, “Why do you go back to the same attractions each time you go to the park?”. My answer is, “Disney and the Imagineers have done such a fantastic job at creating each attraction, I see something new each time I go.” I hate to compare it to home, but in a way, it’s like returning home. There are familiar sites and sounds and almost always smiling faces to welcome you back. Disney, we miss you. Hurry back!
As I look out my window on this beautiful spring day, I see people walking and jogging. They are trying to sluff off the tension that is building up from needing to “shelter in place” during this Covid19 pandemic. The fresh air and the sunshine beckon us outside. Being cooped up inside the house with stale air can’t be that good for any of us, both physically and mentally. People seem to be keeping their distance from one another to keep from catching any bad germs. That is, except those that live in the same household as far as I can tell.
Dennis had to ‘Shelter in Place’
Even though I hate this isolation, I think in many ways it will end up being good in the long run. It does give us time to be introspective, that is if we allow ourselves to take the time to look within ourselves. This may be akin to having to sit in the corner. Do you remember WHY you had to sit in the corner? I think I was spanked more than put in the corner. It was usually a parent telling us, “Go sit in the corner and think about what you did.” I don’t know that it is anything we “did”, but it does give us time to think while being in this proverbial “corner”.
What is nice to see, is people walking and talking to one another. I don’t see as many people looking at their cell phones. Everyone has all day and night to view a screen of some sort. When we are made to shelter in place, why continue to look at a video screen when we can be outdoors?
A few ideas to keep us busy
If you live in an area where the city lights don’t overpower the stars, now would be a great time to buy a telescope. Sit under the spring equinox and look at the stars. There is only so much one can take watching movies on TV.
This week marks the Lyrid meteor shower. Here is a link to astronomical events for the next month or two.
if you are a student, you can get Rosetta Stone free for 3 months and learn a new language. If you aren’t a student, you can try 3 days free to see if this is something that you might want to do.
Make a daily shelter in place checklist
What I have found helpful when I get up in the morning is to NOT pick up my phone, tablet, or turn on the TV. I write down with paper and pen what I want to do for the day. I don’t overload my list, I just put 2 or 3 things that I want to get done by the end of the day. When I do this I find that I actually do these things. If not, I just sort of let the day evaporate into thin air. I hate throwing away a perfectly good day. To me, every day is a gift. When I just waste it, to me it’s like taking this gift that I have been given and throwing it in the garbage. It’s as if I am telling the giver of life, “Here, take this day back. I don’t want it.” I will admit that I haven’t always succeeded at this as evidenced in my previous post!
Hopefully, we will all come out of this sheltering in place with some very valuable lessons. Hopefully, insights that will continue past the end date of this pandemic. I just hope that we become kinder to one another and embrace every day, no matter where we find shelter.
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