The Road of Hard Knocks

The Devil Vet tagged me with a meme that goes a little somethin' like this:

What three things have I learned the hard way?

1. Pay attention to that first impression. I don't know how many times I've met someone, gotten a weird feeling about them and had that feeling turn up down the road to remind me that it was there in the first place. I often put that instinct aside because I want to believe the best in people, but ... boy, has it come back to haunt me. On the other, positive end ... when I immediately take a strong liking to a person, that feeling continues to stay throughout the years.

2. Those who say the past is not dead ... Stop and smell the smoke. Some things cannot be resurrected and put back together, no matter how good the intentions and hope. It's good to let the sleeping dog lie ... I firmly agree with that. For example ... here's a personal example: I haven't spoken with my real father since age 18. I'm now expecting my first child in August and family members have asked if there's been any contact, which has led me to think about what I would do if there were .... the only sane way I could deal with something like that is to leave the last several years out of moving forward and simply do that ... move forward. I choose not to dwell on what could or could not have been. It's a waste of time, gentlemen.

3. On the other hand, to quote Magnolia and Ian McKenzie, you might think you're done with the past, but the past is not done with you. Again, like the first impression, I don't know how many times bad old pennies have shown up in my life when I hadn't thought about them in years. Time and people have a hard time letting things go and if I've said or done something cruel that has hurt someone in the past, even thought I've moved on, those who I've hurt haven't. And vice versa. I have a lot of old wounds that have helped make me the person I am today and still remember most of the nasty things done or said to me over the years.

I keep on learning and even though these hard lessons have a way of insisting I re-learn them over and over, I'm still enjoying riding the bike of life and falling off every so often and skinning these knees o'mine. I'm proud of the scabs.

OK ... now I'm going to tag some folks .... David Alan Moore, lizarinny and Kris Vire.