The problem with always being prepared
Because when you're looking for anything, you miss everything

Always be prepared they tell you, always. "You never know what might happen.." The adage goes. So be ready for anything, always be prepared, know your entrances and exits in case of fire and, for the love of god, if something does go wrong, you trample every godless heathen who would dare to stand between you and your life. I've never trusted anyone who has ever said these vicious and awful things. Why? That's simple; they haven't really lived. They've wasted countless hours turning over channel after channel of life, reverting to the primitive of cave man hunting - turning over every rock, in the hopes that dumb luck has seen to provide you with some kind of sustenance. Taking advice from these sloths makes about as much sense as using your own skull as an astray.

What does that even mean anyway, this 'be ready for everything'? How does that even work? It's a disadvantage of our evolution - we're not built like ants or to carry tons more than our weight. Piling everything you'd need to be ready for everything would break your legs, never mind snapping your sanity like a stick of celery. That's just foolish. Even if you do manage to pack it all on your back like some inverted Mongolian Horseman, you're not going to get very far, and you probably won't be able to see anything but what's down at your feet? What's the point of that? What's the point of only seeing the dirt, and the things you trample? You'd miss everything until you'd already steamrolled it and by then, well, it's just too late to stop.

It's why I've never done it, at least not the latter parts. Anything can happen, that's a given, and that's really the only knowledge we need, isn't it? Why be ready for every little thing that might happen? Even the best things ends up broken and dirty if you don't see it until you've stomped it into the dirt. So why?  Why live like there's something awful around every corner, only to end up in a blind panic of sobbing tears? What's the point? Could you really argue there is one? So, say anything can happen - good, it can. The world's full of all kinds of good things that can happen - if you let yourself see that. 

There's so much of it too, it's around nearly every damn corner. It comes in all shapes and sizes too. Huge, fat, surprises dropped in your lap, and you never know where they might come from. Sometimes they might come on the tail end of the worst storm cloud you've ever seen hanging over your road too. Sometimes, even, you've got to brave the hellish storm full bore, get struck by lightening, and come limping out the other side, just to dust yourself and see that there's something you want on the other side. It's not just people either. It could be anything - hence the point. It could be a candy bar, a perfectly mixed drink, a warm fire to sit beside, a new friend, a new sight, a new place, new words..anything.

It's the people who get too overloaded that miss all these things. None of us are immune to it from time to time, and there's nothing wrong with falling into those trudging steps through  the muck. The only tragedy comes when the decision is never made to leave. It's then we sink in a bog of hopelessness, our vision so clouded that we've, finally, lost sight of the lighthouse on the shore. It's a terrible, terrible, tragedy, the kind of thing you'd read about in small, boxed, headlines, somewhere in the middle of your newspaper. It's here in these shortened effigies of who we were is spelled out in pictures and tiny paragraphs; all our woes set out on the table in clever little dishes shaped like unknown objects.

I used to be one of these people. I know just what it's like to see all your passions go to waste and get rotted by indolence into some bitter vinegar. I know, all too well, about living a life filled with fantasies about people you never talked to, and the countless late night hours spent seeing their faces buried deep in your dreams. I lived this way for a long time. The only break in the pattern ever seemed to come when I'd push myself all the way to the edge -- only to cut my own ropes and sabotage the whole expedition into adventure. The only thing that finally broke it, once and for all, was the conscious decision that I had nothing to worry about at all. I never had. If I was light enough on my feet, I could avoid what I needed to avoid, and I wasn't so cramped with strain that all I could do was rest on the heels of exhaustion.

I used to worry about people would think of the strange behavior that rolled around inside my head like a toddler who was drunk on the feeling of sticking pennies in a light socket. I used to worry about the way my clothes looked to everyone. I used to worry about standing on ceremony for every stranger I ever saw. I still don't think there's anything wrong with evolving these characteristics into a mentality of sometimes using them. Worrying about everyone though, all the time though, is senseless. What's the point of walking through life, choking on a mask of your own dirty socks? It was just that kind of questioning that made me understand it just wasn't worth it. I could walk through my life, being me for the sake of being me - come sun or storm - or I could be damn sure I was too blind to properly appreciate the good things in front of me.

So, worry. It's sensible to worry about somethings. When you can see the storm ahead of time it would be irresponsible not to at least consider what you might need to bring to survive. You can't possibly be ready for anything all the time though. It's impractical. Stare forward, not down, enjoy the drive, the road, the scenery, take in the whole trip. Get the smell of wild, desert, wind in your hair. Enjoy the faint smells of Jasmine and the lingering warmth of warm winds; the kind that haunt your steps like an old, southern, melody drifting through the trees on a cloudless summer night. After all, there's just as much of life to see as there is to miss, and you only get one pass at it. There's no second trips, and the photo albums will only be filled with the pictures you have the ability to take.