Reality Vs. Expectations

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning to Fly

So obviously

we have at least two things to clarify here.  First, no this is not the actual music video, trust me it’s better that way, the real video might just turn you off of the song entirely.  Secondly, that guy has a terrible haircut, but he was part of an 80s band so we can look past that.

I just wanted to briefly talk about this song and the reasons why I like it so much.  If you took the time to read the lyrics as they were superimposed across Tom Petty’s face, then you may have realized that this song says a lot about life.  Or maybe that’s just me.  But to me it does and this is my blog.  I guess in life we’re all learning to fly, it’s what we do, we come to earth to do our best to have the life we want.  We take risks and we jump off that branch and struggle our best to stay in the air, and we fall.  But in the infamous words of Bruce Wayne SR, “Why do we fall?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”  I have fallen several times throughout my life, but I always pick myself back up.  It’s hard but that’s what we have to do.  It’s a reality we must accept, that life isn’t going to happen the way we expect, plan, hope, or want it to.  If we go our lives expecting perfection we will always be disappointed.  Trust me, I know.  I can’t think of anything that exemplifies this point than this scene from one of my favorite movies, 500 Days of Summer. Since WordPress is lame I can’t embed it =P but WATCH IT before you read on please.

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If you can't relate to that scene in any way then you are a robot.  Seriously though, I kinda think if he could have accepted reality he could be ok, enjoy the party and have a good time inspite of himself, though that would make for a terrible movie since the acceptance doesn't come until day 500.  Regardless, the point is illustrated.  The only reason that reality looks so bad is because it is juxtaposed with his expectations.  That's not to say that we should expect the worst, because oddly enough that seems to do something very similar.  When we expect the worst we usually find a way to make reality seem every bit as bad as we expect it will be.  The trick is having goals, hopes, dreams, and having a firm understanding of reality.  Being able to accept life's inadequacies and being happy in spite of them, and making the best of them.  The more we do that, the less inadequacies feel inadequate and the more the spectacular moments feel spectacular.  Life is real, and expecting anything more or less than reality is going to lead to disappointment.

The key here is EXPECTING reality can and should be spectacular.  We will all do amazing things in our lives, and have amazing moments.  But as President Hinkley put it,

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around and shouting that he has been robbed. The fact of the matter is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey…delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” –President Gordon B. Hinkley

I would add, that seeing the magic in the mundane would add much to that old time rail journey that beloved man spoke of.  Everyday I believe that there is something that happened that made that day worth while.  Find that, and you can have true meaning in life.  The image on the right seems in most, if not all ways, completely ordinary.  Yet someone bothered to take a picture.  It goes back to my several posts on creativity, they were able to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary.  Many other people viewing that same train going through that same meadow may well have looked at the steam bellowing beast and seen nothing but a mass amount of metal, steam, and noise, interrupting what may have otherwise been a very peaceful stretch of average.  My challenge to myself is to stop looking for things to be perfect.  To stop expecting the world to spin around me, and start finding the ways that I can see the extraordinary moments in every day life.