Maya:
What's the title?
Miles Raymond:
The Day After Yesterday.
Maya:
Oh... You mean today?
If you don't know what I am talking about you need to watch the movie Sideways(2004). It was a sleeper hit. It was funny, witty, lonely, sad all at the same times. So many of us today could related to Miles. At the wrong side of 40. Neither here, nor there. Have a long list of things we want to do, but lost the drive to do it (at least most of the times that is the way it feels like). Then suddenly when there is glimmer of hope comes, sometimes we want to catch it, and it promptly slips away. But damn! Somehow we can still keep our sense of humor up and alive. How? Oh well! Its called the mid life!
Dude! What can I say! You still don't have kids so you are off to a backpacking trip with your wife. This could be your last trip, but maybe not. There is hope out there! You are walking through the High Sierras in California right now and it seems bliss. You don't have a single worry in the world. Or is it? Aren't you being a complete asshole, and arguing with your wife and best friend the virtues of not having kids. Soon you will understand that not just that thought process but many others that you have are completely flawed. But such it life, I don't think it changes anything, at least on this particular dimension or reality.
| John Muir Trails, CA | Rae Lake, Kings Canyon National Park, CA |
|---|---|
It is just like your failed attempt to learn French or Spanish or German! Do you remember when your friend Anne (not my French Girlfriend, Sakib!) will tell you what you said in French if you translate in English it will sound like..
"...Hello, Can I buy a stick that will make my water very hot hot today?..." Yeah, that is what you said to that Frenchman at the hardware store. And also don't forget what you said to your Spanish Realtor:
"... Hi there, Sorry I am late. I will have sex with my wife and then I will go and meet you! When she was silent, you re-iterated, I promise I will be quick!.."
Yep! That was you, trying to learn a new language and failing miserably. You will happy to know you totally suck at all those languages and you have failed. Moreover, you will be loosing your fluency in a few that you are fluent. Sigh! You will get OLD.
I think I have a learned a bit from the past. Mostly by doing mistakes. But at the very least I have learned some. I have learned that being kind is perhaps the most important thing. Being critical to others like I used to be 10 years back is a terrible strategy. I can get a lot more done by being appreciative to others. There are no right or wrong answer to most social or even technical things in life. Most of the times we choose and have to live with the choices. There is nothing wrong about it. Its all mostly true.
In Sideways Miles mostly try to be what he is not. Try to hold on to things which are gone. Tries to find a place for him in the present world and mostly fails. All these failed attempts just makes him a sad person. Why do we do that? Why we always try to be someone we are not. Why don't we just float in the wind and take the way it comes. Isn't our life will be infinitely better for it. People around us always like a happy person more than a sad person. This is a fact. So why we try to be someone else. I don't have an answer for that. I also don't think we need to answer it. Lets us just forget about it and lead a simple life. Be kind, have fun, appreciate and help people. I don't know if there is destiny or not, but honestly I don't care. Most of the things in life are random and I have limited control on them. Better focus on things I can control vs. things I can't.
Who said that a letter need to start with a "Dear Sir" or "Dear **" and ends with "Yours truly" or "Love, Forever Yours".
