The golden ring

Occasionally, the merry-go-round slows down to let someone on or off and I realize that life is not as madcap or serious as I believed.

The golden ring turns out to be a hologram and the sustenance being peddled all around me is neither as good or bad as I have been led to believe.

On the whole my life is so much better than lives three hundred years ago, or even a hundred years ago. I am not as isolated as people in my age group, or position might have been thanks to computers and cell phones and television. There are places for me to volunteer that leave me feeling grateful and fulfilled. I can maintain a long term relationship with Bestest on a day to day, even hour to hour basis, whereas it would have been days by snail mail. I was born at the right time.

I think it is the human condition to always want to take things a step farther than what is the "norm" at any given time. It is as if we are driven to want more and be unsatisfied with ourselves and our lives if we aren't constantly inching forward. I suppose that keeps our species alive, but it doesn't need to happen all the time. It's okay to be content, or satisfied, or just pleasantly ensconced in what is -- without feeling the need to at least put on the show that I am reaching for that golden ring.

I exist even when I'm not on the merry-go-round. Life goes on even if no one sees me.

Ultimately, my life is for me. If it doesn't leave me feeling good about myself, what is the point?

It's good to serve others. It's good to be a civic minded person. It's good to do and be all kinds of things, but the scales balance out when I let myself feel good too.