Nurse the Hate: Hate the Journey

Is it just me, or are too many people discussing the “journey” they are on?  In my humble opinion, a journey is something where one has a rucksack and is walking a considerable distance with great hardship at every turn.  Journeys are high risk, high reward.  You might get eaten by a fucking bear on a “journey”.  On a journey, you shouldn't be surprised to see a sea serpent.  It is not being a contestant on a reality TV show and talking about “this amazing journey” when all you have really done is performed a negligible skill for profit in front of a camera.  Every interview clip out there from Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, The Voice, or whatever other crap show you can think of has the contestant breathlessly talking about “this amazing journey”.  Get over yourself.  You went to a sound stage after taking some dance lessons.  Or singing lessons.  Or whatever.

If you escaped Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot, or maybe extradited yourself from a Slave Labor Camp in North Korea, now that’s a journey.  If you are sitting in an office complex and a motivational trainer has been speaking to you for a few days, stopping at the end to praise everyone for “this amazing journey”, someone needs to stand up and yell “Stop this madness!”.  We would all like to feel like we are very important and involved in exciting events that radiate with impact.  Let me break this to you bluntly.  You are not.  You are stumbling along, like everyone else, in a mostly unimportant life that will imprint on almost no one.  Maybe you have a spouse that is somewhat interested in you.  Maybe you plop out a couple kids that you fill with your fears and shortcomings.  Maybe you even have a friend or two.  You aren’t on a “journey”.  You are doing activities of your own choosing to fill your days.  These activities don’t really matter.

We like to think that we are constantly evolving into a better person.  This is probably not true.  While age does bring some wisdom of the “I’m not buying flair pants again” and “I will never drink another Zima” variety, I think we should honestly ask ourselves if older people have more answers than younger people.  I have been to nursing homes and no one there knows anything.  If they did, these places wouldn’t be jail cells of loneliness devoid of visitors.  People would be lined up down the block to ask Gus in the wheelchair what he knows about time management, finance, how to throw a knuckleball, and the secrets of winning and keeping the girl of your dreams.  Instead Gus is staring out the window thinking if he were more mobile he would make a run for it and go to Mexico to drink margaritas in the sunshine.

It can be overwhelming to think that most events are random.  There is no plan.  While it is always better for your mental health to repeat the mantra “everything happens for a reason”, I think clear thinking individuals can agree it doesn’t.  Choices were made, actions resulted, and then there was consequence.  “My house burned down and everything I had is gone.  But everything happens for a reason.”  Yes, you know what that reason was?  You were smoking in bed and then your house caught on fire asshole.  It does seem much more magical and epic to tell others you “are on amazing journey”.  It’s so much better than the truth, isn’t it?