MMTT4S - Man or Manatee?

Captain's log: A few days later.

Aloha, amigos!

Just a few short days ago I found myself on an impromptu beach trip with my family to Sullivan's Island. Today, I find myself on the third trip to clean one of my brother-in-law's and sister's vacation rental homes. Among these cleaning trips, I've made 3 official tours of colleges (2 in Charleston!) that my daughter is interested in attending in a little over a year from now and attended a moving Celebration of Liberty at First Baptist Church in Columbia. It's amazing what the tide brings in from day to day.

My wife and I clean houses for a second job. We're both teachers, you see. I just heard a collective "oohhhhh," that indicates you all now understand why we have a second job. We're blessed to have the opportunity, actually. My sister and her husband have five vacation rentals and we clean three of them. We clean the roomy "Lady Bug" mountain home in Bat Cave, NC, near idyllic Lake Lure and scenic Chimney Rock. We clean "Purple Martin" out on Lake Murray in the heart of South Carolina, complete with large back deck and a pavilion that overlooks the boat dock. We also clean a small cabin and large over-the-barn finished loft - rustic hunting luxury at its best - out in the countryside of Winnsboro, SC. There was a time we also cleaned the "Blue Crab" house on the marsh in Coosawhatchie in SC's low country. The drive was a bit much, though, so we gave it up. The fifth rental is a condo in St. Thomas. Ran the numbers and the cost of getting to the islands slightly outweighed the money we'd make on cleaning a 2-room condo. Plus, you know me, we might go down to clean and never return.

I say "blessed" because without this opportunity, we'd be extremely hard-pressed to allow our kids to be on the drum line in the band, play sports, travel with Student Leadership University to Orlando, D.C., France and England, and Israel, go on mission trips, have cell phones, run the AC in the summer, have a working vehicle, eat. My wife and I both have very generous families and friends that have helped us live as fortunately as we do as well.

Life is good. But we're busy!

Image courtesy of disney.wikia.com

Adulthood is filled with unspeakable joy and unshakable terror. With the benefits come the responsibilities. When you throw a spouse and then kids into the mix, it just gets plum crazy. (Side note: don't take that literally - you probably shouldn't throw a spouse or kids.) If you wish to be a good person, you gotta adapt and change as life's seasons come and go. So many parents, I notice, have a hard time transitioning from the glorious freedom of life without kids to a life besieged by sacrifice. You can't be the same people.  And it's WORTH IT! This, I might add, is coming from a hopeless dreamer, a Peter Pan fan. You know, that guy that never quite fit the mold or even fit in. Live and learn - that's what I try to do.

Still, while growing older brings with it additional responsibilities and benefits, new pleasures and pain, it doesn't have to be boring or plain or depressing or even normal. You can't turn back the aging process, but you can determine how you handle it.

Some things you just have to accept.

The other day, my kids beat me in a game of around-the-world on the basketball court for the first time ever. My pride took a momentary hit, but that feeling passed quickly. I guess I realized my main goal was not to beat them, but rather it was to play with them. The older they get, the more I treasure those opportunities. So, I accepted the loss as a byproduct that may accompany spending time playing with my younger, more physically fit kids. Still, I was playing with them. That doesn't sound like a grownup thing. Grownups work, they don't play. We go to work. We work at work. We bring work home. We work in the yard or on the car or in the kitchen. We work at being better workers, spouses, parents. And it does require a lot of work. Maybe, though, we should also play at being better parents, spouses, etc.

Instead of griping at our kids to "just grow up," maybe we should look at the remote control of our own lives, hit pause, and press play.

Don't misunderstand. We shouldn't shirk our responsibilities - we need to be the best people we can be in our moments of life, and that requires figuring out who that is and what's required. Yet, we should retain the wonder and playfulness of our youth. I guess it's a difficult balance, especially when our society and culture of busy-ness, consumption, and egomania often preaches the opposite.

Image courtesy of redvdit.net

Again, I take you to a code I've adopted from Joe Versus the Volcano - to be truly awake and live in a state of constant, total amazement. That sounds more child-like, doesn't it? Well, it's often easier for a child. It's hard to do for us adults. It's definitely worthwhile, though.

Buffett sings a song called "Growing Older But Not Up." It can be found on his 1981 album titled Coconut Telegraph. Jimmy bemoans the fact that growing older keeps us from performing at the same level we once did. Me losing to my kids in Around-the-World, he breaking his leg while rounding the bases. The aches and pains as our bones become more brittle and our muscles, tendons, and ligaments less elastic are a part of growing older. Retaining that flexible mind, though, can prevent growing up - at least the mundane version of it. Constant, total amazement requires mental flexibility. So does being an adult.

This song also features a manatee. Completely off topic here, but manatees are simply wonderful creatures. And we aren't them. In comparison to us, Buffett mentions that manatees are just the opposite - with bodies that are "quite flexible" but a "barnacle brain [that] won't bend." Then again, maybe some of us are more like that than we care to admit.

So listen to today's pleasant tune; love a manatee, but don't be one; grow old (simply requires staying alive, just takes a while); and be careful how you grow up.

For me today, after scrubbing bathrooms and mopping floors to help support our cost of living (growing older), we're going to a baseball game and watching a fireworks show (but not up).

Then, I'm going to get in a few private shooting sessions in the gym...