“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein
One of my college assignments this semester was to write a paper about where I envision myself in 10 years. Since most of my classmates are traditional students (AKA children) just setting out on their professional paths, the prompt made perfect sense. As a middle-aged adult, however, the assignment threw me for a loop.
It’s not just that it’s hard to plot a narrative for the future when you’ve been hit by a few of life’s curve balls, it’s also that we’re simply not programmed to plan, dream or envision anything from mid-life onward.
At 25 I imagined getting from toddlers to teenagers, at 35 I imagined launching them into adulthood, at 45 I envisioned a radical change in lifestyle by going to work full-time after 20+ years of full-time parenting. And then life (actually, death) happened and I stopped imagining anything but getting from one day to the next. Ask any therapist, taking one day at a time, being in the present moment, and practicing mindfulness are good for us. It’s one of the best tools for finding joy and gratitude and overcoming fear and worry. Enjoying the journey, we call it, but if we don’t imagine where we’re going, it’s not a journey, it’s sitting in an idling car in the driveway. I may not have my map all laid out, but I know there has to be more to the journey than turning into a cranky old codger who loudly bemoans the miserable state of everything all day. Yuck.
If that’s the only preview your imagination is giving you, it’s time to go back to your internal writers’ room and craft a new storyline for yourself.
In other news… trash can tell a tale. Maybe not a tale anyone wants to hear, but a tale nonetheless.
I joined a group of volunteers and members of the White River Alliance Saturday to pick up trash around Lake Avery and various public access points on County Road 8.
There’s always a theme to the litter and this year was no exception: candy wrappers and booze containers. It’s one thing to drink and snack, another thing to litter, and another thing entirely to drink and snack and litter and drive. Don’t drink and drive, people, and keep your trash to yourself.
Someone failed to keep some pretty personal trash to themselves last week when some eyebrow-raising litter bobbed up — literally — in the river. A county employee spotted what appeared to be a human body in the river. Upon further inspection, the body turned out to be an anatomically correct inflatable female “friend.”
The discovery raises many questions, but do we want the answers?
By Niki Turner | [email protected]