On Thursday, the Classics Club had a special viewing of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Probably one of my favorite scene from the movie is the final scene; Brian’s being crucified due to bureaucracy screw ups, and he has been abandoned in no short order by his friends, the government, his followers/stalkers, his girlfriend and his mother. Things are looking pretty bad for him… until one of Eric Idle’s characters starts to sing a cheery song about looking on the bright side of life. The message is simple: things in life never really turn out how you want them to. You might fail a test (not saying that I did, I’m just using it as an example), you might get sick, your flight home might get delayed a few hours, but you shouldn’t let that bother you. You should just smile and press on and not worry about all the things that have gone wrong in life. It’s kind of like Everything is Awesome in a way; you shouldn’t worry about screw ups and failings, and instead focus on everything that has gone right in your life because that matters more in the end.
Me for example, I’m not a perfect straight-A student, I’ve been unceremoniously fired (sort of) from a past job, and I’ve damaged both my parents’ cars on separate occasions. Do I worry about that? No, I’m thankful for my parents, who understand me and encourage my creativity. I’m thankful for my girlfriend, who also understands me and tolerates my weirder moments. I’m thankful for my sister, who comes up to see me every now and then and we go out for lunch, and that always gives me a nice energy boost. I’m thankful for my friends, both here at Wabash and back in Oregon, who share my interests and are also capable of putting up with my weirder outburst. I’m thankful for my extended family, who have been an inspiration to me and have encouraged me and enjoyed my work. And I’m thankful for my skills as a writer, without which I’d probably be a much more boring person.
So I say look on the bright side of life, because more often than not the good things in life will outweigh the not-so good things. Those you should lock away where you can never ever ever EVER find them.
Unikitty thinks you all need to be more friendly
Anyway, on to other topics. It’s a really nice day here in Crawfordsville. Nice enough that I went for a walk, and had a great time of it except for the parts when the wind picked up. Not to say I don’t like wind (I love it), it’s just that I don’t like it when twigs and dirt fly in my face. But I shouldn’t complain, it’s not like it’s a sandstorm or something. Anyway, I went for a nice walk, just some time to get some fresh air, clear my mind and get some ideas flowing, and I took this picture of the arboretum:
It’s pretty!
The grass is a bit dead and there are no leaves on the trees, but it’s nice to see some green after several months of brown. In a few weeks the leaves should come out (I think; it’s easier to tell in Oregon), and everything will be all nice and pretty. I’ve said before that I’ve got finals and hard work ahead for me, so it’s times like this when I can get outside (and Dork Club, never forget Dork Club) that I am able to keep a level head and not freak out too much.
And never forget: