The whole notion of scars and souvenirs, at least for our purposes, is the thought that the events of our lives leave a mark upon us. Whether it's a bad relationship, a horrible job, that really good bar fight, or even that one weekend you'd never remember if it wasn't for a jerk best friend and a camera phone, our lives leave impressions on us. Whether these impressions are visible or not, well in my slightly less than humble opinion, usually the more horrific the scarring the more incredible the story.
You know, one of the reasons I began writing the C.S. initially was that I wanted a place to share an opinion or two with those few unfortunates who chose to read what I had to say. In the first few months that I've been up and blathering I've foisted more than just a couple of my ideas out there into the universe. Now, however, I want to take just a few lines to get more than just a little real on this whole topic.
I've been kicking around this rock for nearly forty years now and while I will never ever ever even attempt to pretend to possess any level of wisdom whatsoever, I have actually learned a thing or two from hard won experience. My own scars and souvenirs so to speak. Now admittedly I have more than the usual amount of concrete between my ears so I may not always catch on to what the universe is trying to teach me but I have actually learned a couple of things along the way. One of those is near and dear to me and I'd like to share it, if you'll indulge me:
The Cynical Sarcastic's Life Lesson for 2012:
Stop worrying what everyone else thinks and be proud of who you are and what it took to get to where you are in life!
Seriously kids, you'd think by watching and listening to us all as we run around in our little rat races that we loving refer to as our day to day existence that we are actually ashamed to be ourselves. You have lived your life to this point and all your past experiences, mistakes, drunken escapades, prison stories, and one crazy night in Antiguas all go into who you are. They make you unique and irreplaceable as a person. Ten people born on the same day in the same hospital/barn as you have had ten very different lives. I'd bet every penny I will ever have on that fact. The question is do you actually see value in yourself for that fact?
The same goes for aging, scarring, disfigurement or whatever makes you think you're ugly. Do you see all that grey hair sprouting on top of your head Mr. Just for Men? Guess what, you earned it, if for nothing else but you managed to hang out on our little rock just long enough to start going grey. You're scarred up from some nasty accident? Check out the dude who just won Dancing with Stars. The man looks like what happens when you throw a Ken doll on the gas grill but he takes pride in earning his injuries by fighting for our country. You lost a leg due to an illness? You're still here, right?
Take a look at this picture:
So that's about all I've got today on the subject of scars and souvenirs boys and girls. If you're at all anything like me you can account for just about every nick, cut, and mark on your own hide and I'm willing to bet that there are some pretty good stories around some of them. Just remember that those stories, your past, make you unique and that you should be proud and find value in yourself for that very reason.
Here's to a great 2012. I'm looking forward to finding out what kind of scars and souvenirs I'm going to end up with by the time 2013 gets here!
That's still my best side!
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