I’ve found in life that we often never get what’s on the box, especially with people. Many people wear a public facade, a mask of sorts for the public to see, yet in private they and their life are very different. We all do this to some degree if for no other reason than privacy, and in the case of a few of my close friends who are celebrities for example they often must do it if for no other reason than public image, but they all also know that there’s a difference between knowingly doing this and acknowledging to yourself that you are and lying to yourself in your own private life to get through the day in a failed effort to believe your own BS and make it a reality. Trust me in my own life I see this behavior in many people from all walks of life. This faking it way of being only leads to unhappiness or worse possible excessive drinking, depression, anxiety, or even drug use. I’ve talked a few people off this ledge in my life, and I suspect I’ll help many more as the universe seems to send them to me to work my perceived magic of sorts. The thing is your brain lies, it lies to you all the time, its jobs are to take in information about the world around you, logical analysis and more over to protect you, in many cases to a fault. But your soul and your heart cannot lie, they know not of it, and that’s where the pain and unhappiness stems from, and unless addressed you’ll age faster, you’ll lash out, drown your sorrows and you’ll distract yourself with mundane material happiness and tasks. That Maserati won’t make you happy. And it won’t impress the neighbors either. That’s not happiness, it’s just a fast car that’ll be in the shop a lot.. My point is there’s a point where this duality of living becomes unhealthy, it creates within itself an unhappiness and almost anxious way of living where we’re not only up all night pacing the kitchen, but we’re living for other people and their expectations rather than living for ourselves and being of service to others. There’s a profound difference there.
I’m always very real, open and honest with you all. That’s just me, it’s how I am, online or offline. Many of you have met me and know that I’m as advertised; though I may be as has been said a bit more soft-spoken in person I wear no public facade or fake front for you. But my depth of emotion and understanding runs much deeper than what I may share on social media or here in these articles. Overall I think my openness and honesty is part of where some of my popularity comes from. Many of you seem to see me as someone who can offer you a different perspective on life, a new way of looking at things that when blended with your own beliefs can change the way you approach your life. It might interest you to know that I don’t see myself that way. I learn as much from helping others as they may or may not learn from me. I’m happy to offer suggestions to anyone but many times the way we approach life stems from family expectations planted into our heads in childhood and those are difficult to overcome and require a great deal of honesty with one’s self. I had family expectations put upon me and I renounced all of it from a very early age. I was expected to marry a certain type of person, and do this this and that because that’s how it’s done. I became my own person instead, I’m self-made 100%. I love my family but I’m me, and I live my life for me but not in a selfish way, a way that’s of service to both myself and the others in and around my life. It’s best to view your life as “yours”. It’s your life, you only get one shot at it that you’ll remember anyway. Happiness can never come from living by or for someone else’s expectations. Expectations are the actual root of all evil I think, it’s just most of them put upon us revolve around money or security or status etc. which is why money tends to get that moniker. In my decades of people watching I’ve found this to be the case more often than not. “Be your own best friend, stop looking out, start looking in, stand up and say hey, this is mine!!” Strong words from Sammy Hagar, but he lives by them and always has.
To hammer this point home below is a fun little true story of a recent evening in my life. While it’s meant to be funny, there’s also a very deep moral buried within it. A moral I encourage all of you to dig for and think about in relation to yourselves or others. Part of that moral is to always be real. And if you can’t do that for the public or others in general then at the very least make damn well sure you do it for yourself.
My story begins with me finding myself this past Friday evening in the hair dye aisle of a Santa Monica CVS pharmacy with my friend Beth. I’ve been in this isle of hell with my wife many times. I hoped Beth was quicker. We were out in the first place to buy a present for her husband/my business partner. So off we went, first to have coffee and map out our gift ideas, then on to the store to purchase said gift ideas. Seems like a simple plan doesn’t it? Coffee, store, home.. Piece of cake right?! So how did we end up in the hair dye aisle you may ask? We initially got to the hair dye aisle because as we were driving past the CVS to get to somewhere else Beth in an almost “oh my god I’ve pissed myself” sort of way leaned over and yelled “STOP here I need hair dye”!!! I can on some level understand her urgency. Beth has platinum blond hair and she really has to keep up with it. If she doesn’t touch it up often she ends up having what can only be described as a “skunk” sort of look about her as her natural brownish hair seeps in. LOL.. (yeah I know I’m going to get a call about that “skunk” comment ….I just won’t answer …lol )
Anyway as I was standing there in hair dye hell watching Beth pull boxes from the shelves to find just the right one it occurred to me, with all these boxes of women’s faces in front of me it felt a bit like I was in “The girl store”. A fictitious store where you pick out the girl you want. I’m a bit of a daydreamer, I’ve always been like that, so if I get bored I do tend to create fun for myself and others if need be. I’ve played this game before in the past on the hair dye isle, but never to this level.
So there I was standing in front of a 7 foot high by 12 foot long wall of boxes, each with a picture of a girl on the front and a number denoting them. I couldn’t resist, so I started to pick a few out for myself. I thought, “oh 5A…. I like 5A”. So I grab the box and so on and so forth, all the while with Beth on the floor to the left of me sifting through the boxes she had chosen for a much more sane reason, But I… well… I had my own stack of boxes which I had chosen to play a little game of “Pick the girl” to pass the time as it looked like from Beth’s pile she was going to be bit. I always thought it was just my wife who was like this, but as it turns out it’s the whole lot of you it seems…… lol
I was fond of 5A but also several others of varied hair color from Burgundy to Ash Blond to Dark Brown. Beth it seems by contrast was having a hard time making her selection and kept interrupting my little game by holding up boxes next to her head and asking “how about this one?” To which I would respond honestly and offer a fair assessment all the while wishing she would stop interrupting me so I could get back to my game!! I mean seriously!!!!… I was choosing someone to spend the rest of my life with!!! This was serious business!! All she was doing was picking out a damn hair color!!!! … Priorities Beth, priorities!!
By this point I had narrowed it down to 5 boxes. 2 blonds, and 2 red heads of varying shades, and one medium brown which I quickly eliminated as she seemed to have a missing tooth. Though I suspect it was a flaw in the photo I none the less held it against her as a candidate and eliminated her as an option. HEY, central casting would have done the same thing,,,,so get off my back!!
So now I have a 2 blonds and 2 red heads. How do you choose between a blond and a red head I thought???.. Normally it would be a no-brainer, redhead of course.. But sometimes I’m in a mood shall we say… Oh, it all seemed so unfair!! They were all lovely; “The girl store” is a virtual hell I thought to myself!! (actually I think I said it out-loud as the lady behind us who appeared to be looking at foot odor control powders turned her head. I’m not sure if she heard me but I didn’t care, at least my feet don’t smell lady!!!… And I had girls to choose.) In the end I ran out of time. I didn’t get to make my final choice because BETH had finally unburdened herself from the literal PILE of boxes she had taken off the shelves and had finally made her hair-color choice. She had decided to go RED!! Still standing in a pile of boxes on the floor she looked over at me and said “RED IT IS!!.” So I chose Red as well, I saw it as a sign!! Which should come as no surprise if you’re a follower of my channel… lol
Truth be told I had fun playing my little game to pass the time, but I did come to a realization. I pondered what might have happened if I really were in “The girl store”, if it was a real actual place. You all know where this is going, but I’ll type it anyways for dramatic writing purposes.
We all know that had I made my selection and placed my order for “Girl 6A” or “8A” or even “9B” it would have just ended the way it usually does with online orders, or even those dating apps some of you are on. Oh I would have received my order just fine, but when it arrived I would have quickly realized that the girl on the box was a 15 year old picture. And as I greeted my “Girl store” order as she arrived I’m sure with one look at her it would have been abundantly clear that those were 15 hard years of whiskey and a pack a day habit. lol
So in my imaginary world where all those hair dye boxes were my choices in this mythical “Girl store” the whole experience would likely have just ended with a frustrating customer service call. And me uttering the inevitable words…
HEY! I ORDERED “The girl on the box”!!!!…. who the FUCK is this!?
— Cheers
