Perspective Pieces

Were I an accountant, I would be enthused about today.  The events prior to 2:00 PM EST break down thusly:

I read an essay from a PUMA who urged the like-minded to vote McCain as a way of protesting the DNC’s recent decisions; I then read an essay from a PUMA who urged the like-minded not to vote McCain and proposed other means of protest.

I read an article indicating that McCain’s discussion of the troop surge and the Sunni awakening would be the gaffe that killed his candidacy; I read another article indicating that his discussion was accurate in spirit, if not in semantics.

I went to the gym feeling rather blimpy, having overindulged in dessert last night (curse you, Ben; curse you, Jerry; ampersand…I can’t stay mad at you).  At the gym, however, a relative stranger (a regular gym-goer who caught me without my headphones for the first time) alleged that I was looking trimmer.  I would like to subscribe to his newsletter.

At the coffee shoppe, I was embarrassed to order my schnitzy espresso drink in front of two hombres who looked like they would feel more at home on the tundra punching yaks.  When they ordered a white chocolate mocha and vanilla latte between them, however, I did not feel quite as lame.

Ergo, I think today’s balance is hovering right around zero.  There seem to be enough perspectives in the world to make everything even out.

This is on my mind today because I found myself dwelling on my career thus far in a rather morose fashion before bedtime last night.  I wished I’d gotten started sooner, that I’d done more of the requisite preparatory reading when I was wee, that I’d served these writerly novitiates when I was a bright-eyed twenty-something.  As it turns out, this is a terribly easy game to play.  Dwell on the past long enough and you can heap up enough regrets and self-recrimination to send you into a good sulky spiral. 

This morning, however, that shadow had passed me by.  Nothing substantive has changed; all the credits and debits line up about the same.  Taking a look at the same information from the opposite angle, however, lets me see a little light where there wasn’t much before.

This has all the makings of a Lifetime movie (with a little luck, they’d get Scott Bakula or Tori Spelling to portray me),  and I don’t think there’s much need to elaborate on a theme drawn from Life Lessons 001.  But in the middle of a looong summer, when all my work is in flux, when there’s no mail incoming or outgoing, and when the only one keeping an eye on me is the man in the mirror (not the creepy Candyman kind, or Bloody Mary kind, or Michael Jackson kind, but the bald man kind…which sorta makes me want some honey, tomato juice, and plastic surgery), I think it’s worthwhile to hang on to whatever vantage helps you see your way clear.

I see no way out of this post.  Consider yourselves distracted: