“All that glitters is not gold”. You ever heard that? I have. About a thousand times, I have been warned not to get too excited about something because of the possibility of it not being exactly what it appears. While many, if not most, of the times this was good advice, it is true that while all that glitters in not gold….all that glitters is fu*king glittery, and I like glitter. I like excitement. I like risk. I like adrenaline and I like to feel it at every opportunity. The problem is that there is a downside to risk, excitement, and adrenaline….and I don’t like downsides. However, I think the pleasure of the payout far outweighs the consequences for me personally. Not everyone feels that way, and that is totally cool. There is nothing wrong with “playing it safe”, as there are many folks, a helluva lot smarter than me, who lead their life with the mantra of “playing it safe”. I don’t think there is any one right or wrong way to live your life so long as it’s not harming others, unless you are that person who is perpetually looking for the way that someone could hypothetically be hurting others by their decisions (in which case, you are probably an a*shole).

What is my point? Well, I’m not sure that I have one. I think I am just trying to justify why it is that I am living my life the way that I am. The best way that I can describe what I am doing with most of my time these days is, “I am chasing glittery sh*t”. I am casting out hundreds of different lines to the universe and seeing if any of them bite. With each line comes excitement, adrenaline, risk, but also glitter. There is the opportunity that something big might grab onto the line and I might reel it in. There is a chance that the opportunity will be so big that it snaps the line right off. There is a higher probability that most of the lines will either be nibbled off with disinterest (if that’s a word), or the current will simply pull the bait from the hook, leaving an empty hook which no one is focused. All of these are very real scenarios, and each of them is filled with upsides and downsides.

I was lying in bed last night, preaching to Amanda through the muffled tone of my CPAP mask,  about how excited I am about our future. I told her that I could not wait to wake up this morning because I have all sorts of fun things going on. I also told her that I have never had so much uncertainty in my life, but yet been so certain that things will work out. Most of the waters which I am navigating are uncharted, but I believe my motives are good and my expectations are minimal. My primary expectation is that things will turn out in a way in which I least expect. That is the beauty of it. I have all of this “stuff” happening and all of it appears glittery, but there is no promise of gold, nor is there expectation of gold….and THAT IS PRECISELY WHERE I FIND THE GOLD. You see, I don’t believe that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the fun part. That’s where the ride ends. That is when you get off. Riding that rainbow, chasing the gold, and experiencing all the bullsh*t along the way is the fun part. I get an inordinate amount of pleasure and happiness from receiving a follower on Instagram, a re-tweet, a shared blog on fb, a new e-mail subscriber, or a subscriber on YouTube. I absolutely love it. It is my “gold”. Some may see that as only glitter, leading to inevitable disappointment, but I see it for the NOW, and I love it. I believe that the gold IS the glitter, and that as long as I am excited about what I am doing right now, well then what happens further down the road is of little consequence. It will or it won’t. That’s the universes fu*kin problem, not mine. My job is to keep fishing and not just lay around the boat bitching about the weather.

I am going to enjoy fishing the deep seas of the universe and continue to throw bait out there and see if anything bites. It is my friggin bait and my friggin boat. I get to decide where to anchor and when to troll. I can throw out more lines in any number of directions at any time I choose. I can choose to fish or cut bait, but ultimately I decide when to work and when to just take it all in. Their are endless possibilities, each of them with positives and all of which contain drawbacks. I will look for both the glitter and the gold, but be aware that the glitter is what I am attracted to most. There is really no more value in the gold than the glitter, aside from what I perceive it to be. I hope you have a nice day fishing, and that your waters stay calm, and your rods stay bent.

Peace, Love, and all things Beef related,

Beefcake