This Present Moment
Posted by Frankly Francis on February 27, 2009 under Personal | 
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I was at an interesting party about the time that I had traveled 17 revolutions around the sun. A lot of philosophical professor types getting buzzed and talking about all kinds of metaphysical existentialist things. Yikes – an intellectual smorgasbord!
I was discussing some mundane topic like the meaning of life with a psychologist by the name of George Appleton. I remember that he had his arm in a cast. Found out later that George had broken it by tobogganing off the roof of his house. Also found out that he liked to go duck hunting with a submachine gun. Appleton may have had a few personal idiosyncrasies…
When another person joined us, the conversation took a twist. I’m going to have to paraphrase & significantly condense, but this should be a fairly good depiction of the exchange that took place:
Other Person: I had a rotten childhood and crummy parents.
Appleton: OK, so what are you going to do about it now?
Other Person: I have no friends and no one likes me.
Appleton: OK, so what are you going to do about it now?
Other Person: I’ve been treated unfairly by others.
Appleton: OK, so what are you going to do about it now?
Other Person: Life sucks, I’m bored, I never get a break, and so on.
Appleton: OK, so what are you going to do about it now?
I’m sure you get the picture of where Appleton was coming from. It was one heck of a revelation for me. I was very fortunate to have been present during that conversation.
Appleton taught me that unless I could go back in time and change things, I had better be concerned about my present choices. The present moment is everything – there is no rewind button when it comes to life.
Of course, I’ve had to re-learn this lesson periodically, but it enabled me, at a young age, to accept personal responsibility for my own life.
But that also left a lot of time for me to create other more interesting problems…
And for that, I thank you George Appleton.
Frankly,
Francis