Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Some time ago, I pointed out to a dear friend (whom I adore so much it's probably illegal in several states) that he never makes an effort for anything unless he's sure he's going to get it.

I've been in a somewhat introspective mood for a few days and the realization hit me that I recognized this trait in him because, to some extent, I'm the same way (although, I don't insist upon ALWAYS winning and being right like he does). Yes, losing builds character, but no one likes to lose, right? But is it possible that I've been losing out on... character architecture? Sure, I'm kind of quirky and wacky now, but - what if I'd tried and failed for a bunch more things? Would I be, like, the deluxe version of me? The platinum level me? The VIP section me?

And my dear adored pal, he's one of the coolest people on the planet (in spite of his "I'm always right" attitude) what if he'd made a run for the hula hooping world record and failed miserably? Or if he'd tried to learn Mandarin Chinese only to have the people at Panda Express make fun of his accent? Would he be the modern day version of the Fonz now?

Halfway into this post, I realized that it didn't really have much of a point - sure, I was looking for an excuse to mention my pal who complained that I hadn't mentioned him in a previous post and see, now I've mentioned him, what, four times? But maybe the lesson of today is to set your sites higher, so that you can fail more often, because it's good for you... or something.