Smell the coffee

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2233

Recently a very good friend sent me this video created by a very sincere young man who wants to share his philosophy about how to get through life.  It's called the 3 A's or something.  Basically he says enjoy the small pleasures in life and have a positive attitude.  What a revelation, right? So he created a blog, just like mine, which no one read, just like mine. However, eventually lots of people read his blog and he got a book deal whereupon he put all his blog posts in a book you can now buy everywhere.  Bet he's feeling pretty good now, huh! Hell with that warm underwear, he's got a warm savings account.

So here's this rather ethnically diverse, sincere young man telling me that I should hang around 3 year olds (just random ones) and enjoy their view of the world, ('no, no, no, mine, mine, mine) and savor the good feeling of putting on underwear fresh out of the dryer.  This will help us deal with life's problems and move forward.   Did I forget to mention he was married briefly and his wife left him?

Well, I've had my own 3 year olds and yes being with them is like being a child again, but I'm not.  I'm a big person with big person problems. And warm underwear does not help me or I would think most others deal with death, job loss, mental illness, cancer or any of a host of problems people have to deal with.  Don't get me wrong, I love warm underwear, who doesn't? And I think a positive attitude is great and useful but really, the answer to life's complex problems?  Not!

He can call me when his teenager gets pregnant or misses her curfew and he waits up watching the hours crawl by imagining all sorts of horrors. Call me when his mother dies of cancer or when his child is failing in school and wants to drop out and join the army. Call me when he has a couple of small children and loses his job after he just bought a brand new house.  Call me and I'll tell him how sometimes life is just getting up every morning, putting one foot in front of the other, breathing, and having the age and experience to know that these things too shall pass whether his underwear warms him or he warms it.