side streets

It's been a couple of weeks and hopefully you've been wondering, "why don't he write something?" Well, I've spent the past couple of weeks like I spend the first couple of weeks of every new year. . .
Trying to decide how the hell I'll want to spend the other 50 weeks of the year.

I'm not talking about "resolutions" like quitting smoking or drinking or even over-eating. Frankly, I don't smoke or drink or even over-eat enough to make any of that worthwhile. Besides "resolutions" are Fascist. If you make one, you MUST pull on your metaphysical jackboots and brown shirt and stick to it without compromise or latitude as the days and weeks and months grind on while the universal forces try to trip up your lock-step forward march. If you falter it feels all alone in the world so you join a "support group" of like minded faltering fellows.
"Resolutions" take up a lot of time and energy for about 6 months until, at the fourth of July bar-b-que, you chow down on a rack of ribs, lay back in a lawn chair, spark up a smoke and enjoy the hell at of your first Bud of the year. Then you get to spend the last 6 months of the year feeling the quilt.

But that's not what I'm talking about. . .
Why worry about what you're NOT GOING TO DO with the year when you could be thinking about what you ARE GOING TO DO. . . Probably.

My process starts like a game of 20 questions. . .
• Are you going to need to buy a car this year?
• Will you have to find a new apartment?
• Is it time to say bye-bye to Key West, move to Miami and get a real job?
• Can you break away for a 2 week vacation in California?

. . .and what about new projects?

• Do you want to dedicate 8 months to creating and oversized piece for Sculpture Key West?
• Or is it wiser to invest the time in establishing a profitable internet business?
• Do you feel good about taking the guitar back up on stage?
• Or is this the year you finish writing that damned book?

. . .you get the idea.

The next step in my self imposed process is finding answers to the questions. . .

Now, I'm an agreeable kind of guy so this year, with the exception of finding a real job in Miami, the answer to my questions was "yes". But as agreeable as I might be, I'm also not delusional. I know for sure that the sea is not going to part to clear the way for me work uninterrupted toward my goals. "Face it boy", I remind myself, "in this life, sh*t happens".
So I consider my annual affirmations with that world famous "grain of salt" and accept my choices at the end of my 2 week inquisition as direction.
For the next 50 weeks I'll move along, this way or that, focused on the road ahead but always with a sly eye on the side streets I'm sure to discover along the way.

I'm realizing as I write this that my "process" reads a bit like irresponsibility and it probably is. But, it makes for a more interesting trip and promises an harmonious outcome.
Probably. . .