Nico take it slow
Show me that you care
And love's not just a flare on my sleeve
Sleep well, I pray that cardboard boxes,
Set the perfect stage.
'Cause wood grain makes all man made things seem so out of date
Life is not a play, it's what we
Make of the people we love.
(Uh, oh! We're going a little "Life of Josh" old school to start off here...)
On the Sunday before New Year's, my mom called to see if I knew that I was in the newspaper that day. I had no idea but apparently a couple of her friends from church had seen it so I raced home to check it out.
Sure enough, right there in our local Chesapeake community section, The Clipper, yours truly had been awarded a "Clippie Award" for being the editor of Inside Sports magazine and for hosting the Chesapeake-based pop culture radio show. Basically the "Clippies" are a great end-of-the-year feature that local arts and entertainment reporter Eric Feber puts together to honor locals that have done something creatively over the past year; and he was gracious enough to include me on the list for 2007.
Crazy enough, two things stood out to me when I read about myself and my work in the paper: (1) It was hard for me to realize that it was actually me that I was reading about because (2) everything written about me sounded so cool!
Like, I was reading it and wishing I could be that guy or at least know that I guy; I couldn't put it together that I WAS that guy.
And I guess that just comes with how tough the past year has been - I just haven't had a chance to really enjoy all that I've accomplished. But I guess in way that's been good; it's kept me humble and it's kept me focused.
That is just like my mom
Never lets go, never lets me grow old
I wanna pay her back
But love is nothing you can tax
My family’s not rich by any means
But I feel we won the lottery, that day
The really crazy thing is that even though there have been many moments where I feel like I'm making one huge mistake after another with my life, something happened last week that actually gave me some much needed perspective and peace.
My buddy Paul and I were driving back from a high school basketball game out in Suffolk and had, for once, ran out of things to talk about. I don't even know where it came from but just out of no where I asked Paul if he could go back in time 10 years and had just 10 seconds to give the 1998 version of himself some advice, what would it be?
Think about it, if you had a minute or even 30 seconds to visit with yourself 10 years ago, your past self would probably freak out before the time was up and there's no way he'd ever remember everything you said in that amount of time because of the shock. But if 2018 Josh dropped in for just 10 quick seconds and said something to me and then vanished, I think I would be startled enough to pay attention and heed any warnings.
It was actually a very interesting exercise in that at first, Paul couldn't really come up with any thing because everything he would say to his past self would ultimately affect where he is now; and that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks.
As miserable as I have been at times over the past year, given the opportunity to go back in time and change it, I would NOT try to change a thing. Every "mistake" I have made I have learned from substantially and I have never felt closer to the people I care about around me - why would I want to change that?
And that's why I posted this song today. The basic message has gotten me through a lot of tough times and sometimes, that's all you need.
That, and to be an award winning journalist.
Snails see the benefits
The beauty in every inch
So why, why, why, why, why
Are you quick to kiss?
Baby, maybe I spoke too soon
I’ll touch you once you make the first move
Snails see the benefits
The beauty in every inch, oh
Snails see the benefits
The beauty in every inch
PS - I want to hear from you! Given the chance, if you could go back 10 years in time and tell the 1998 version of yourself something in 10 seconds, what would you say??
(I think I finally came up with something like "be more aggressive for the things you want and don't work in daycare centers for so long".)
2 comments:
I think I saw that movie except it was a young Neo and some other kid who traveled through time in something called a "phone booth." From what I remember, the two travelled back in time to 1955 and inadvetently caused Trinity's parents to break up thus changing the future to where these strange, mutated blue-creatures ruled the future world.
Given that potential meltdown of society, I believe I would stick with the montra proposed by Mr. Mahler: "don't say anything." I wouldn't want to change a thing. Even if I were to somehow indicate exactly what was to happen to me over the following ten years, I am positive that my younger self would dismiss such ramblings as delusional and meglomaniatic (if that is even a word).
Truly the safest course of action would be to merely hit yourself in the stomach, kick in the butt, or some form of medieval torture just to teach your younger self a lesson: "always be ware of older selves who travel through time because nothing good will come of it!"
CCastelow
I realize I'm a little late on commenting on this post, but this one really had me thinking.
The one thing that I would go bck to tell my self is to be more intentional with my time with people. I wish I had been more intentional looking to influence friends toward godliness. Watching movies and having casual conversation is great, but I wish I had also considered how I could encourage and spur others on to love God more, to delight in Him more, and to pursue godliness. I wish the gospel had been more a part of my conversation.
The great thing is that in God's mercy (and Lord willing) I have most of my life left to be more intentional.
Jon DeCarlo
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