5:33 a.m. I enter the on-ramp. Pre-rush hour traffic is gliding down I-95.
Where you at today? What’s it gonna be? Which DK is going to show up?
I glance at the dash. 39° F. Overcast. Low hanging mist. Light is beginning to creep through the gloom.
A fulsome night of sleep. No anchor pulling down on this a** today. Today, I’m rumbling.
I glance at my watch – a late jump for an early morning meeting.
Delegate down? Cancel? Reschedule? Odysseus isn’t hearing the lovely sea nymphs but Glaser’s Siren Call. And he starts to wail. And wail. And wail.
The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid…it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last.”
The app calculates my arrival time: 5 minutes before the meeting start time.
Tight. Too tight. Serves you right for agreeing to burn it on both ends. Burn. Burn. Burn.
From head to leg to foot to accelerator, I push the pace and arrive in a empty parking lot with 10 minutes to give.
Manly Man beats the Google travel time estimate, chalking up his first victory for the day.
I place my phone and keys in my bag and pause, peering through the wind shield into the dark, concrete block wall.
Does it matter? Does anything matter? How does one reconcile the conflicts. Deep DK. Deep.
In the end, I am to burn down. But I wish to burn down like a thousand dying suns. I wish to burn like a great star going supernova. Burn intensely, burn passionately, burn with a roar and never a sputter. Some people live their life a slow and painful collapse, and when they burn, they crumble. I wish to never be that way. When it’s my time to be set aflame, I want the igniting spark to be the things of my passion—not my regrets.” N.T.
I grab my bag, and head for the door.
Odysseus skirts the Land of the Sirens.
In the end, I am to burn down. Burn intensely, burn passionately, burn with a roar and never a sputter.
It all matters. Let’s go.
Game Time.
- Credits: Rule #1: Malcolm Glaser. Burn Quote: Petrichor. Image: morganalyx
- Related Posts: Driving Series
Very cool image.
It is Tim. Loved it too.
Ah Dave, Dave, Dave…burn down with passion, burn down with ardent love, burn down with energies expended in each moment. There’s no conflating the intent of the message with speeding down 95 and beating the GPS arrival estimate, assigning purpose to the variability of minutes between when a meeting starts and doesn’t start.. That’s just stress kiddo – and that doesn’t lend itself to burning down – it lends itself to burning out. And I care too much about you to let that go unsaid.
Digesting the “right” way that you share, yet reconciling the dissonance of the Supernova that I sit on. Knowing that you and Milton Glaser are both so right, the body concurring, the mind refusing to accept the siren call. So we burn…
Has anyone ever told you that you’re a teeny weeny bit hard-headed? 😉
Oh, every day. My fight song:
Ivy Baker Priest: “Never in doubt, often wrong.”
Laughing…
Dave? Hard- headed? Naw…….
I was hoping you’d chime in!! 🙂
Ah, yes. The proverbial Piling On.
One must be careful not to fly too close to the sun, for rather than burning, there is a melting and falling back down the the earth that happens. And the landing can be most painful.
And there you have Icarus.
– P.K. Page, “This Heavy Craft” (via elucipher)
Yes
Self-control. Self-motivation. Are we supposed to call them words of the week? 🙂 “I want the igniting spark to be the things of my passion—not my regrets.” I so believe in this statement. And I like the way you said this, “chalking up his first victory for the day” felt like to put my Ray-Ban glasses and give a Hi 5. 😉
Smiling. Loved it Sonia.
Thank you 🙂
Listen to Mimi, pal, for she is wise beyond measure. Nothing wrong with shining brightly, but self-immolation is not the goal, OK?!
Listen to Lori – talk about wisdom…She’s at the apex..
Imm. Immo. Immol. Immolate. Imm-o-l-a-tion.
im·mo·late (m-lt)
tr.v. im·mo·lat·ed, im·mo·lat·ing, im·mo·lates
1. To kill as a sacrifice.
2. To kill (oneself) by fire.
3. To destroy.
Had to look it up. New word for me. Like it.
No. No sir. That is not the goal. Let’s burn like this Icarus:
Very nice, DK, very nice….
This reminds me of a line from one of your recent posts, “everything on your plate is something you said yes to”. Still, the victories, small as they are, are sweet.
I say YES to THAT!