#1 Sometimes it is okay to give up

I want to try something new.

Bear with me…Bare with me?

I need to google that.

Here’s what has occurred to me…Every one of my posts, largely, is about something I realized, or remembered, or some kind of an epiphany that I’ve come across for the day. This is also my best attempt at making sure I write something here every day (yeah right), but I’ll really really try. So, here is my idea: a ‘what did you learn today’ sort of thing. I really do believe that we learn something new every day, and this will be an interesting way for me to keep track of all these things that each new day brings with it. So, my attempt is to begin each post with my new lesson for the day. These lessons could be things I’ve learned, or things I want you to learn and take with you. Once in a while, I rant…usually a lesson will be tied to it, but if it isn’t, then already I apologize for not sticking to my promise. But this is my dire attempt to ensure that there are not week long gaps between each post, (or month long in recent times). So here goes, today, on this lovely day outside—I’ve learned that [1] sometimes, it’s okay to give up.

I can already hear people’s jaws drop—whaddaya mean, it’s okay to give up? I’m reading McCarthy’s The Road for an American Fiction class, and if there’s one thing I’ll take from this text, it’s exactly that: sometimes (especially when all of civilization ceases to exist) it’s okay to want to roll over and die. It’s okay to understand and become friends with the idea of death, because it’s near.

Now it doesn’t have to be as clear as a life and death situation; but when it’s eight in the morning, you have a test in an hour and a four hundred page novel to finish. It’s okay to give up trying to finish the book, you will not finish—not unless you develop some surreal reading ability within the next hour. I would suggest going over what you do know instead, cut your losses short. Similarly, you get to the bottom of your street and see your bus a couple hundred feet away—traffic is heavy and it’s too dangerous to run across. The light turns green and the bus slowly accelerates. Instead of risking death and madly running towards the bus, here, it’s okay to give up. You will not catch the bus, and even if the driver sees you frantically waving on the sidewalk, chances are that he will not stop. So pull out your cell phone, call your boss and tell him you’ll be late, then cross when it’s safe and wait the twenty minutes for the next one.

Sometimes it’s okay to give up. Some times.

By the way-- it's "Bear with me," comes from an old English saying 'be a bearer with me,' as in a 'paulbearer,' a term that meant something along the same lines that "hang in there" means today...bare with me, would mean 'get naked with me.'