For Lack of a Better World

Ain’t no way around it
One day I’m gonna die
If something’s gonna kill me
Might as well be
What makes me feel alive

I don’t usually quote country music because I don’t usually listen to country music but I have to transfer to a new phone today and we’re inside Black Rifle Coffee on Duval Street in Key West to enjoy some coffee while we execute the transfer the process and this song — Somethin’s Gonna Kill Me by Corey Kent — is playing.

I could not feel more aligned with these lyrics. And I have since January 1, 2021 when I decided there was a lot of world left to see and I had an obligation to give Luna a meaningful life.

These two motivating factors helped me realize how much of my time I had wasted pursuing the objectives of other people. I understood how meaningless many of life’s pursuits were — and even if not meaningless, not for me specifically.

I recognized how replaceable we are In a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the work we do, the jobs we hold, the organizations we surrender our lives to. And the people for whom we are not replaceable for? Those are the ones we give the least of ourselves to.

It’s grotesque to me the way we’ve structured our society. What’s more unsettling is how much we all know it’s bad and we don’t seem to be doing much about it. Where is our sense of urgency? Probably in Season 6, episode 11 of whatever series is being mainline into it respective consciousnesses if I had to guess.

I had no idea what I was doing in January of 2021. No idea. All the alarms were going off as I pulled out of my driveway in Houston telling me I was being foolish or selfish or manic even, that this is not what normal people do, certainly not at my age.

Here in January of 2024 I am happy to report that I still have no clue what I’m doing. None. None whatsoever. But I am as happy, as fulfilled, and as at peace as I’ve ever been in my entire life. And that alone has been worth the gamble I took three years ago.

So since we’re all going to meet the same fate one of these days let me encourage you to please, please, find the courage to meet that fate on your terms and not the ones that have been assigned to you by your culture.