I have the best job in the world. Really. I get paid a huge amount of money to do...basically, nothing. Well, very little. I have the best boss in the world, which is saying something because I thought my last boss was the best-boss-in-the-world. In other words, I'm quite happy with my current situation in life. (Oh, sure I'd rather be fabulously wealthy - wouldn't we all? - but that comes with a whole other set of issues and problems.)
So I was sitting around the airport the other day, doing nothing as usual, waiting on a call from the boss to pick him up for our little forty-five minute flight, my big work for the day. And in between one of my naps Paul Merritt (one of the other pilot hanger-arounders) says to me, "What did you do to deserve a cushy job like this? Surely you must've done something good in your life at some point." (I didn't get it at the time, but I think he was being sarcastic.)
His comment made me think. Had I done something to deserve this? It was an interesting question. Perhaps! However, it must have been something unconscious and totally unintentional to be sure.
Then I had a little epiphany. We are always told that, "Actions have consequences." This statement is usually aimed at us in a negative way, like when we do bad things and get caught. But it works for good things as well. We just don't always realize or recognize it.
I'm not sure of exactly what I've done to merit having a job like this. But I'm damn grateful to have it. We go through life, living it the best we can, the best we know how. We muddle along, doing some bad things and doing some good things. Mostly, we never see the direct result of our actions, unless we get arrested with the smoking gun still in our hands.
I'm sure my nephew with the drug problem has had it told to him over and over in stern tones that his actions have consequences. And I'm equally sure that his association of that phrase is totally negative. What he needs to learn is that there's a flip-side: that good actions have good consequences as well. They're not always apparent nor immediate, but they do occur. And this is what we must focus on.
I'm living proof.
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
6 comments:
Hope this is not too simplistic....
right place at the right time with the good fortune to have both occur at the same time. also lots of work to get the experience to make you qualified in the first place. same deal for me. as for the nephew, same situation but he seems to finally have it together, just took apx 30 yrs. take care and rfemember...dirty side down, or in your case i guess it is whirly side up!
Bob
Dont think it could have been said better.
Russell from Texas
Bob, I think I'm gonna hate you at the end of my first day on a hurricane evacuation this season. But hey, I'm sure it'll be temporary.
'Course there's luck -- of that I am living proof......MofManicotti
Bob,
From what I've "learned" about you in the last year, here's my best bet-
You're a good guy that always wants to do the right thing at the right time and more often than not does.
When ya don't, you learn from it, usually.
I'm going back to my tool box now. I ain't real good at this fhilosofizing.
David
Still on the lam in OKLA
Well said you deep thinker you. You always seem to be sitting (hmm) and thinking and pondering life and its mysteries. Me, I'm cleaning my sooty oven and wondering when I will have time to blog now that I'm retired! Come to think of it, my husband is retired, housewives never retire. But, that's another story.
You may be right - I'm a very unlucky person so, hopefully, my actions will have some rewards - I'm waiting! We get what we put into life I believe. Someone once said: "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change"
That wraps it up for me.
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