Friday, January 06, 2006

Possibilities

When you are a child, they tell you your life is full of possibility. And you believe them. You believe them because you know they are right. And they are- as a child, your life is full of possibilities.

What they don't tell you- what the bastards never mention- is that possibility can go either way. It's the fine print that fucks you.

Sure, when you're a kid, it is always possible that you could be the guy who discovers the cure for cancer. Of course, it is equally as possible that you will be the poor bastard mopping up after the guy who cures cancer after he leaves the porno shop viewing booth. Possibility- she's a bitch.

Life is a series of choices, each one affecting your eventual outcome. What really screws you is that you never know which choices are really going to impact you. Your college choice might mean little in the grand scheme of things. But one day you decide to have the chicken instead of the beef for dinner. The chicken gives you food poisoning so severe that the girl you are about to propose to ends up watching in horror as you shit yourself in the middle of the Dairy Queen, loses respect for you and starts sneaking around with the swarthy guy from her gym who swears he's gonna be a film producer and suddenly they're running off with your life savings and your mint condition Spawn #1 and you have to move back in with your parents, who, by the way, never much cared for you but managed to hide the fact while you were young but now they don't have that kind of patience and you realize that every childhood memory you ever had is a complete sham and you end up locked in your garage with Counting Crows blaring on the radio as you're gleefully sucking in carbon monoxide and insisting that "This'll show 'em all!"

Not that I'm bitter.

Or maybe you like a bit of symbolic imagery. The moments in your life are like forks in a path in the middle of a dense wood. You cannot see where either direction will lead, but you need to make a choice. Do you take the easy path, with its even surface and cheerful woodland creatures? Or do you take Frost's road less traveled? Or, like me, do you look at the two paths and say, "Wait a minute- what the fuck am I doing in the woods? I hate nature!" I do, by the way. I absolutely hate it. But I guess that's not the point.

You know, you start out in a nice middle-class suburban home. You have loving parents, access to good schools and a mind full of possibility. Suddenly, one day, you're the Unabomber. And that's when you realize- possibility has gone and screwed you again.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home