Marching Forth with Thoughts – Thoughts from March 4, 2023

As I’m reminded every year on this day, march forth is the only day that is a phrase. Beyond that, it’s just another day that will live in obscurity. I’m going to treat this day like I treat every day – like the first day of the rest of my life. Speaking of days (they don’t call me the transition king for nothing), I thought I’d talk about something from almost a month ago (that’s many days back). I’ll talk about what Patti and I got each other for Valentine’s Day. Patti got a poem that I wrote over several days. I was going to post it on her Facebook page, but decided the anti-religious section of it might ruin her enjoyment of it if other people saw it. Patti gave me the gift of stuffed animals and toys. I picked them all out, of course, but she paid for them. You may think it’s weird for a 52-year-old to get toys as gifts, but not when the 52-year-old is me, it’s one of the least weird things about me.

One of the old VHS tapes I recorded recently had a recording of my grandma’s car in my parents driveway. It was a gold-colored car. If you’re new to my Thoughts papers (this thing you’re reading right now), you may not know that “gold car” is the only description you’ll get from me. If you really care, I’ll show you the video and you can tell me what it is. The gold color is the most important part to my discussion here, though. I associate her gold car with her because she had many gold things around her house that weren’t actually gold. When I see a gold crayon, I think of my grandma. Patti likes gold so I associate it with her now. Unfortunately, Trump also has an affinity for gold and has associated himself with it. I like gold but only when it’s mixed with other colors. When I see things made from pure gold, I think about what a waste it is to make something from just gold when you can’t see more than just the surface of it. Gold is just a color that looks good with other colors. That religions see gold as divine makes it much less appealing to me. I’ll stick with my gold crayon and all the other colors that look good with it.

Jealousy is stupid to begin with, but it’s especially stupid when people are jealous of things they wouldn’t normally care about if others weren’t doing them. I’m glad I don’t live someone else’s life. Wanting what someone else is, has, or does makes no sense. If I wanted to do what they are doing, I would do it. I don’t do things like other people because they don’t do things like I would do them. As far as being jealous of expensive things others have, I know what it takes to make gobs of money and those things would not make me happy. I don’t see anyone who is as happy as I am. Many people act happy, but I see through the act. I don’t know if anyone is jealous of me, but they should be. I tell people what it takes to be happy and they don’t believe me. They are jealous of people who they think have what they want. They don’t realize they are being jealous of the wrong things.

I think people are the most interesting when they are walking by themselves. It is more and more difficult to see people just walking alone. They either walk with someone else or they stare at their phones. Also, they walk as little as they can get away with. I think it’s so interesting because it’s so rare. People who actually walk places are more interesting than people who choose to occupy their walking with distractions. There are more things going on in people’s heads when they walk than anything on our phones. The brain is a powerful tool for solving problems, inventing things, creating stories, and having a thoughtful life. Choosing not to use it is choosing not to have a life.