"...'til I gain control again...." -- Rodney Crowell

 I've always been one of those folks who pushes limits, maybe talks a little loud, says what others don't dare say and gets into little (hopefully good) trouble. It's easy to say, "well, that's just who I am" but that's not the entire truth. 

 Sometimes you have to gin up this approach for A Greater Good when you'd rather just sit back and watch. I do a lot of that as well. Observation and thought go hand-in-hand, like enthusiasm and action. But lately I find myself doing a lot of both in the same day and often in the same hour.

 It's weird to watch and feel your own body decline. You know it's happening and at first you try to stop it. But after awhile you realize this is the New Reality and you figure rather this than a perfectly functioning body with a mind blown to dementia. There's all kinds of ways anymore to stop or avoid the physical pain of death. Just leave my mind intact to remember lives in Paris, Vienna, Liverpool, Martinique and Victoria.

 From being part of a Pulitzer finalist team to running my own food businesses to owning a radio station and living nearly a decade in New Orleans. Raising my kids in (what was then) the best part of Florida. A summer spent bull riding. Meeting four presidents. Plus so much more. It's been a ride and they say I'm not quite done yet. A good thing, because there's a few more things I'd like to do if the physical remains intact.

 If the celebrating and enjoyment along the way has shaved time off my life, it's been damn well worth it. Our lord and savior Mr. T said "I pity the fool" who'd rather hide in safety. To me, that's no way to live because they're not really living. Just marking time until, eventually, we all arrive at the same destination.

Despite the physical, I'll keep doing and aiming at new adventures. It's the only damn reason to get up everyday.