It was Talk Like A Pirate Day last week. Since I’ve learned about the holiday 7 years ago, I’ve transformed into Captain Bubbles and gone to work as such. Every year.
Last year, I sailed to the township of Long Beach to plunder a pastry shopped called Krispy Kreme. Since I was rogue at the time, I brought the booty to my good friend Doctor Justin to take to work. This year, Captain Bubbles, now employed, repeated the raid and came away with pastries for her shipmates.
One of my coworkers asked, “Where did you rent your outfit from?”
“These are all mine,” I said.
“You OWN these? Why?”
“Because it’s my hobby.”
“Wait. I don’t want to know.”
Move along, muggles. Move along.
Then another coworker told me, “I just love how in-to things you are. I mean, obviously, you have your clothes. But you actually name your pirate alter ego and everything!”
I shrugged and said, “Hey, life’s too short to not go all in.”
She laughed and went on her merry way.
I’m serious, people. Pussyfooting around your life gets you nothing but a really boring existence.
You can quote me on that one.
Later that night, my friend Traci sent me a link to this video about how Hubble telescope was pointed to a spot in space that is utterly empty.
Except that it isn’t. The light from 13 billion years ago has just now been captured. The “empty space,” about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, has 10,000 galaxies, each filled with hundreds of stars.
That’s how tiny our existence really is in the scale of things.
We are but a speck in this vast universe. Our lifetime is just a blip compared to everything else.
The more the reason to not waste anytime not living your life.
I discovered as a child that it is more fun to NOT be shy. By being “brave” (or as my mom called it, a showoff), there were so many fun things I got to do.
Need a volunteer to go on stage? I’ll do it. Nobody is going to start the buffet line? I’ll go. Dance floor is empty? I’ll start.
I can’t even begin to tell you about all of my adventures because of me NOT being shy. (Or as my mom called it later on in my life, being shameless.)
It’s not “Oh my god! What are people going to think about me when I do this?!” that I think about. It’s “How much fun is THIS going to be if I do it?! Let’s do it!!!” It’s “None of these people know me and/or I’d never see them again. Let’s do it!!!” Well, the second doesn’t seem to work very well in the digital age, so it is now, “Someone’s going to get this on video, but I don’t care. Let’s do it!!!!”
My life has been amazing because I’ve long ago abandoned the concept of shame.
Let’s just put it this way, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I have no regrets.
(Well, okay. Not having been to Italy to eat would be the only thing on my bucket list that I would regret not having accomplished. But I can make up for it the next time around, I’m sure. Hey, I’m a Buddhist. We’ll ALL be back!)
Life is but a blip in the universe, people. Live it well.
As Mark Twain said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Bring it.