Enjoying the ride

And so we say good-bye to another week. Amazing, isn't it, how quickly the time seems to pass.

Stayed at home today. Still not feeling that great. Slept most of the time, but did manage to watch a little football and part of an old country music show I recorded. Classic stuff from back in the day -- Statler Brothers, Barbara Mandrell, Larry Gatlin, back when it was really country music and not a bunch of two-bit pretty boys and bubble gum Barbie Dolls.

Oh, I also watched a western with Randolph Scott this afternoon. Kind of an ambiguous ending, though. Kept nodding off during it, but when it was over, I wasn't quite sure what it was trying to say.

Sometimes I just want to get in the car, or on a horse or whatever, and just ride off. Go where the wind takes me. See where the journey leads.

I get to feeling this way when the world doesn't make much sense, or when the Black Dog rears its ugly head, or even for no rhyme or reason. Often it's after something has reminded me of what folks tell me all the time -- that I'm born out of my time, a stranger adrift on the waves, having missed my port of call because it's borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I don't know. I think we are who we are for a reason. The trick is to always stay true to whomever that person is, rather than pretending to be something you're not. I've done that before, too. It never works, and besides, you won't be happy long.

Me? Well, I keep holding on to the simple things, clinging to the old dreams, trying to remember who I am, living for the moments when the whole damn thing makes sense, but knowing what to do when they don't.

Life is a whole lot less complicated than we make it. And one thing I'm learning, often the hard way, is that 90 percent of the things we worry about never do come to pass. And the other 10 percent? Well, you can't change that if you tried.

So here's to enjoying the ride, even when you're not exactly sure where you're headed, or how you'll get there. The fun part lies somewhere in between.