Be Careful What you Ask For

This week was a lesson in "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it." And here's why:

I missed a few days posting here because I was so worn out from work that I couldn't lift a finger to do anything. The last 3 days have been just brutal. Out of the 100+ dogs I bathed this week, I think there were only 1 or 2 who weren't vigorously resistant to the whole idea of wetness. From little bitty dogs who turned into crazed demons at the sight of water, to a Mastiff the size of a small horse curling his lip and showing his teeth to everyone who looked at him - it was just crazy!

As I was walking out to my car last night - feeling battered and beat up - I said to myself, "I'm tired of having to constantly fight every day!" Then, it hit me... fighting... Isn't that what Aragorn does? Isn't that what Buffy does? Fight Urukai, Orks, and vampires - bad guys? Isn't that pretty much what happens in these epic fantasy movies? Those larger than life heroes get out there and fight, then they fight some more, they get knocked down, they get back up, and they fight again. In the movies, it looks pretty cool... in real life I think it probably pretty much sucks!



Plus, didn't I just tell a number of people that my days of emulating "The Wrestler" were over? And yet, here I am, once again, almost (but not quite) an exact replica?

That's food for thought for sure! Lots of questions to mull over. Is it true that I don't want to be constantly fighting? or is it just that I don't want to be fighting with silly dogs who don't want their bath? Maybe I enjoy fighting, I just wish it was more interesting, or more rewarding, or that in the end I'll be winning something richer and way more cool than my piddling paycheck. Which sounds really ungrateful - and that's something else to consider - since that paycheck is what keeps my electricity on, my car running, and without it I'd be pretty frightened and cold right now.

Maybe at the end of the day I'd like to be sitting around the fire, or sitting in the library with my friends and companions thinking about how we saved the world yet again, instead of sitting at home, alone. And why is it that I'm generally attracted to the warriors, to the die hards, to the relentless hero fighting against all odds. Could it be that bathing dogs is just too easy? If they really were little demons, and if I really was saving the world one Lhasa demon at a time, would I be happy and fulfilled in my work?

What about you? Do you yearn for a big life, high drama and then when it comes do you find yourself wishing you didn't have it? Does the drama lose it's "so cool" qualities when it's real life and you're in it? Having to actually "do" the impossible, the improbable, or the agonizingly difficult? Alternatively, do you find yourself creating so much drama in your life that there's no time or energy for anything else? Do you yearn for peace and then when it comes find yourself filled with a restless energy that demands you get up and "start" something?

And as I'm writing this, it occurs to me that movies and books tend to leave out the tedium and the long hours and even longer days when nothing interesting is happening. Would I have become such a Lord of the Rings fan if I had to watch it in real time? Would I even be out of the Shire yet if I was watching it as it actually occurred? And if movies did unfold in real time, I guess the movie I'd rather be in is Avatar... and I'd want to be one of those cool flying dragon creatures!

Of course, if that happened, I'd probably end up with a job flying and fighting... and I'd be coming home from that job feeling beat up and tired and wishing I had a small animal to eat... maybe a dog even... and saying to myself, "I'm really tired of flying and fighting."

So... guys... those are my thoughts for today. What about you? What are you wishing for and then wishing it wasn't almost as soon as you get it?