Some people describe life as a river; that you go with the flow, the river takes you downstream, sometimes there are rough waters and other times it’s a gentle current. Blah, blah, blah. My experience is if life is a river, then you’re swimming upstream. In order to make any progress, you have to swim hard and fast. Take a rest, and you move backward. Eventually, it is inevitable that you’re going to drown. But that’s just the nature of the beast.
At this point, some may simply say I’m swimming the wrong way; that if I just relax and let the river take me downstream, there’s something lovely waiting for me that I was destined for. We can take nature as a cue on this and see that everything has a way of balancing itself out. The ultimate design is actually perfect and we each have a place. And some of us get eaten for dinner.
I don’t think those who know me would think of me as a negative person. To the contrary, I’m pretty sure most would say I’m positive. So, this viewpoint of a difficult struggle in life and the extraordinary effort it takes to succeed may not seem consistent with positivity. But the viewpoint is based in my experience. Nothing has ever been easy for me. The orientation of having muscular dystrophy all my life probably has something to do with that viewpoint. (I will be writing about this much more in the future). Nevertheless, it’s my experience. Life isn’t easy. You have to make an effort to get to where you want to go, otherwise you drift where life takes you. This comes down to the question we all must ask ourselves: “Is our life a matter of choice or is it predetermined?” In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve decided I have a choice in life.
So, as I undertake this current project of advancing a stand up comedy career to the next level, what ever that may be, I understand that I can’t just stay in my house, watch reruns of Golden Girls, eat potato chips, and “let the river of life take me where it wants to”. I want things to move forward. I want to get somewhere. Somewhere closer to success than I am right now. In order to do that, I do what I heard a wise person once say, “I get up each day, report for life, then do the next indicated thing.”
Today’s activity started with this blog. But I also made a booking for the tour and exchanged emails and phone calls with other comics, friends of comedy, and others regarding these plans. I updated my Facebook and Twitter status and got back with people who acknowledged me as best as I could. Here’s what I noticed; things are starting to happen. Who knew?
I want to give a quick shout out to a new comic friend Dave Robinson who wrote about me in his blog. Active comics eventually run into each other in the river rapids of life and I knew of Dave from Twitter. Though we really didn’t talk much, we exchanged a few jokes across the ether. I regarded him as an experienced and funny guy. He seems to also be on a similar journey and I just wanted to thank him for giving me some attention and a lift. Anyone who has something called "Davewear" can't be all bad.
You move forward. That’s all. You take your best shot with the resources you have at hand. You may not even have the resources of the person next to you, but if you apply yourself with a little more passion, ingenuity, and excitement, you can make some progress.
I’m swimming as hard as I can.
Ultimately Stand Up Boils Down to a Mic and Mouth
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