Where Do I Begin?

Is life more like a snow globe or a snow storm? I’d like to think that’s a good way to start a conversation. At least it works that way with my coworkers. See, assuming the Social Security Administrations average retirement age of 67 and the average college graduation age of 21, most of us will get to work consistently (if we’re lucky) for 46 years. Unfortunately, after about 2 years, the compulsion to figure out what the hell you’re doing, and execute, fades. Then you’re left with “that thing you do to pay the bills” and a few coworkers who you consider friends despite your better judgment (it’s a dog eat dog world, whatever that means).

With your mind less occupied with ambitious goals you are left to daydream loftily and ponder the meaning of life. What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of my life? If I were to create an analogy for life, what would it be?

My thoughts are a series of tangents and like the six degrees of separation, you can get from here to anywhere in surprisingly few steps. So now we’re back to snow globes. Little fragile balls of liquid, often filled with fake snow and snow scenes. Some people like ones with picture frames inside or Mickey Mouse, but I’ve always associated them with broken glass and Christmas. So like life, snow globes contain beautiful moments that temporarily are clouded, but resume their beauty once the dust/snow/substances settle.

Or is life like a snow storm? A serious fucking mess until it ends with peace and quiet. I don’t really like that analogy. I’m depressed now.

“Life is like a snow globe!” I shall say. The end.

If my life were a snow globe it would be a clean glass ball on a gold base inside a pendulum-like mechanism that automatically flips itself upside down in regular intervals. The inside would contain a bunch of puppies with their tails upright and bodies poised for pouncing – as a symbol of all the beautiful moments – and there would be a shit ton of fake snow so that the scene would almost always be obscured due to the constant twists and turns of the globe – life.

In reality, life is far more complicated than any analogy. Life is something that has to be attacked in sections, the first of which I call “the lies.”