Of Ups and Downs and Dizzy Flies

             Normally when you get a story that’s meant to give you some sort of moral, there’s this pattern that story follows.

You get the story. Sometimes there’s this little opening sentence before it, sometimes not. And as for the story itself, it may be short, it may be long, it may be insightful, or it may not. And then there, at the end, you get the point of the whole endeavor in one to two lines, the moral of the story that you’re supposed to take away with you. I say ‘supposed’ because, let’s face it, most of us forget the entire thing a few minutes after we’re done. Don’t deny it, you’ve been there. We all have.

So, the story, the tale, true or not, that you find yourself reading. Some of the time, it may be glaringly obvious what the moral is once you’re done. Other times, you might be left wondering what in the world the ‘moral’ had to do with the story.

Me, I prefer to follow this method most of the time. Why, you ask? It’s tried and tested, and it allows me to ramble on without the hassle of needing to stick to some old boring point. Once I reach the end, I add some random phrase from somewhere and pretend that it was what I was taking about the whole time.

This works sometimes; the reader would probably assume I was making sense, even though I know perfectly well that I wasn’t. And there’s also the added bonus that the reader might assume that I’m too smart for them and that I’m probably right anyway. Thank you, really. I owe it all to you. Literally, at that.

This time, though, I’m going to spare you some of that perplexing contemplation. I’m going to give you the moral of this post right here and now. Here it is:

“Never assume that the future is going to work for you. Make your plans, have a path set; but know that it’s probably going to be blasted to smithereens halfway in. Be flexible, be ready to adapt. Setbacks will be waiting,”

-          Mathew Wordweaver

Yes, i made up that quote. Yeah, I know, it sounds depressing; give me a break, I’m depressed.

The future can never be predicted, I guess. You can plan all you want, but fate has a nasty habit of flicking over your dominoes before you’re ready. A few days ago, I was all set to start work on the crossbows post that was supposed to be here. But things happened, and it didn’t turn out that way.

Why am I depressed? I had to let go of someone very important to me, and that, to put it bluntly, sucked. I guess I wasn’t as important to her as she was to me. In any case, my dominoes started toppling, the shrapnel from my shattered plans was raining down around me, and I was stuck in the middle of a minefield and all out of chocolate.

Yes, I know they say chocolate is a girl’s best friend. Doesn’t mean that us guys are banned from liking chocolate. On the contrary.

Anywho, there I was, in that minefield with an empty KitKat wrapper in my hand. The way I saw it right then was that I had three options. Number one: sit down and start to cry about being out of chocolate. Aside from the fact that I might have sat down on a landmine and ended all my worries then and there, I wasn’t too into that idea.

Second option was to mope around all day, break my contact with the outside world, become a recluse and live as a hermit on the outskirts of Mordor. There were a few problems with this one, too. Obviously, I needed a ride to Middle Earth, but the Magic School Bus wasn’t taking me on ever since I suggested that the Knight Bus was much faster. The Knight Bus hasn’t taken me on ever since they heard I was a regular on the Magic School Bus.

And they said competition helps the consumer. Pah.

My third option was pretty much the most sound of the three. It involved picking my way through those mines, surviving, and coming home to write something on the blog. Of course, if I stepped on a mine on the way out, it would undoubtedly be the most ‘sound’ of the three.

Explosion pun. I'm still depressed.

We all know which option I picked; and since a mine hasn’t exploded (yet), I’m duly grateful. Who needs schedules, anyway? Imma gonna go post whatever I want to up here whenever I feel like it, so help me.

Considering the circumstances and the alternatives, I’d say I’m handling it pretty well. I don’t smoke, nor do I drink, and I’m not going to start for any reason, even one like this. You’d probably say I’m strong willed or whatever. I just think I’m too lazy to even begin an addiction, let alone sustain one.

My dreams were pretty much shattered, but it’s okay, I guess. The pieces seem to fit better now; the way they’re scattered there on the ground, I think I’m seeing some possibilities.

I guess I was really expecting this, and it was a matter of time, anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I was having the best week I had ever had in my life so far. But even while I was enjoying it, I knew that good things don’t last forever. There was this nag in the back of my mind that it was all short lived, and it was a ticking bomb. (Again with explosives?)

 And right I was, and the bad stuff rolled around without warning, to pop me in the nose like Mike Tyson behind a left hook. It was as bad as they come, but I’m even more surprised than anyone else would be to admit that I’m not as devastated at you would think I’d be. Why? I have no idea. Maybe because I knew it was coming? I wonder if that’s it.

“The wheel keeps turning, and the fly at the top will soon be the fly at the bottom again.”

 I remember reading that quote somewhere, but it makes sense. Well, if you could imagine a fly patient enough to sit still on a wheel that’s moving, that is. That poor insect would probably be flying in spirals for the next ten minutes after it finally decided to leave, but that’s going off point.

A thoughtful reader might by now be wondering of it was a slight trace of bitterness they were tasting behind these words. I guess that yes, I am bitter. Of course I’m bitter. But there’s that time old saying that works for moments like this, and I hope you will excuse the language:

“Shit happens,” - Anon.

That’s deep, isn’t it? Yeah, I thought so too.

I’m not breaking down, but I’m still numb inside. That much I know for sure. I guess all I can do is gather up those pieces and put up a new picture. Good things don’t last forever; neither, however, do bad things. Maybe that’s just fate’s way of evening things out? Crappy system, fate. You need an upgrade.

That wheel is still turning, and I’m waiting till I’m on top again. Hopefully I won’t be too dizzy that I can’t fly those spirals outta here.