But in the VERY Long Term…

Much love to Bill Watterson. Click for full-size.

So, I have this weird aspect of my personality in regards to the way I live life: I’m always thinking about what’ll be going through my mind as life flashes before my eyes when I lie dying.

Well, that sounds a bit morbid. I’m not ALWAYS thinking of that. For instance, when I make a sandwich, I’m not particularly debating the long-lasting importance of my actions. Instead, I’m debating what to put on it, and how much mustard I’d like on said sandwich.

But, I’m often thinking about what “will make better memories,” to quote Calvin in the above strip.

In my last essay, I spoke about “busting cycles,” and how I feel that is important to do from time-to-time. To me, busting cycles by spontaneously breaking your routine is to your day-to-day life as wedding photos are to snapshots.

You could have a beautiful wedding photo: everyone’s dressed up nice, with their hair professionally done. You’re in front of some very pretty natural background. You’re posed for near-perfection.

But then there are snapshots: those pictures taken spontaneously when the subject had no idea it was coming. This could be the person you love laughing while eating Chinese food on your couch, or perhaps your brother telling you a joke at a barbecue with you, beer in hand, smiling as wide as you ever have.

These snapshots of our lives have always meant much more to me than posed photographs; and I know I’m not the first to say this, but I’d like to publically declare my love for snapshots. Snapshots are bright little bits of life that we can capture and keep in our hands, like fireflies. They show us as we really are. They make us smile because they were unexpected, but turned out wonderfully.

This is exactly my attitude on “busting cycles”: unexpected, but wonderful. Life’s like those wedding photos: it can be great, but it’s planned. You get up, go to work, pay bills, see person X at Y o’clock, etc.

These captured bits of our spontaneous, yet lovely lives that we lead are, in the end, what we’ll cherish most. Sure, that fancy, romantic dinner with your wife was a really good night, but wasn’t there something beautiful about that night you and her couldn’t catch a cab in New York City while the rain poured down on you? Her makeup was running, and both of you had drenched hair. Your clothes were soaking wet, and it was a bit uncomfortable. But you were laughing. Neither of you could help it.

You were laughing.

That sounds a lot more like something that I’d cherish and keep with me till the end of my days. Knowing I feel this way, I often think that these are the things that’ll be flashing before my eyes as I pass on. I’ll be imagining the moment I first kissed my wife, that time we were smiling and joking like little kids while we ate breakfast at midnight, the time my children had a snow-day, so I called out of work to play with them under the purifying white blanket the clouds were knitting for the soil.

In the end, you’ve gotta just be the best person you can be, and enjoy life as much as you can. There’s things you have to do, but the things you want to do shouldn’t have to be planned as much. Don’t make everything a wedding photo. Take a snapshot every once in a while.

After all, what more can you ask for out of life than a life worth remembering?

Thanks again for reading. Keep the love alive, everyone.

- Mike