Reality Has No Brakes - Grasshopper

I hate to be the one who breaks the news but there is no stopping reality. No matter how hard you try or how hard you pray, there is no stopping night from becoming day.

Are you attempting to put the brakes on life? Life is another name for reality.

 

Have you noticed how many people and organizations are against things vs. for things?

 

It’s my experience that most people who are against things are blind to tomorrow. They seem to have such a foreboding sense of the inevitable that causes them to jam on fake brakes by declaring they can’t let reality happen. The problem is the brake they’re stepping on is like the one I threatened to put in my car when driving with my mother. It would have given her something tangible to step on instead of putting a hole in the passenger side floor, but it wouldn’t stop the car.

 

The “against” factions are like fake brakes - tempting to step on but incapable of halting reality.

 

Let me say that some organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have changed our cultural thinking and behavior about driving while under the influence, but I submit that their name could have just as easily been Mothers For Driving Sober but that would not have had the same marketing impact even though that’s what they truly want. In reality, they are FOR something, not digging in their heels against something.

 

The “against” folks I’m referring to are the ones who want to do more than preserve the status quo: namely they’re the people who want to go backwards to the way it wasn’t. I lovingly refer to their point of view as the “Good Old Days” glaze. They vividly remember the good and conveniently forget all the bad from the days of yore.

 

They have made their idyllic yesterday the time to pine for even though yesterday will never turn into tomorrow. They keep pretending it will, but it never has happened nor will it ever happen. You can dress up in Civil War garb and visit Gettysburg and participate in the pageantry, but believing you’re Ulysses S. Grant on a mission from God will make your war against tomorrow just an ineffective Jihad.

 

Another synonym for reality is change. Have you noticed that things change all the time? Standing in the way of change is like standing in front of an oncoming car, no matter how poignant your protest placard, you’ll be like road kill run over by a ‘55 Packard.

 

Railing against reality seems to be our national pastime even though its time has long passed. I’m not sure we’ve noticed the toll it’s taken on our peace of mind and the havoc it wreaks with our bodies. The good news is it’s a reversible condition.

 

Begin by noticing that your brake pedal has worn out while wearing you out. Notice that old expressions that stand the test of time are reality based: “Time and Tide wait for no man.” Or remember the serenity prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change ­- The courage to change the things I can - And the wisdom to know the difference.”

 

The way to get out of the way of reality is to join it. You don’t have to like what reality delivers, just notice that opposing it will give you more than the shivers. Getting in step with the direction of reality keeps you from getting stepped on, and the byproduct is this: You become FOR more things and against less, allowing you to save your brakes for something you can really change.

 

All the best,

John