This Present Moment

Posted by Frankly Francis on February 27, 2009 under Personal | 2 Comments to Read

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