We all seem to reach that point in our lives w h e r e
we wonder, “What’s it all about? There are many
answers, including an old joke that asks the question,
“What if the Hokey Pokey is really what it is all
about?” By the way, there was a time when I was a
teenager and everyone knew what the “Hokey Pokey” was. I’m sure that
is not true today, as there are so many things that the younger generation
(that’s 50 years younger than myself) seems to have no knowledge of, such
as typewriters, rotary dial phones, phone booths and other items that have
been rendered as ancient and forgotten as buggy whips, due to technology
or other advances. However, despite new inventions and the addition of
high-tech terms to our vocabulary, the most frequently asked question by
all ages remains, “What is life all about?” We want to know why we are
here and what we should be doing. We know that we must have a purpose
and yearn to discover what it is.
I have found that although I can’t say with certainty what the essence
of life is, I do have a few clues as to what it is not. Most obviously, it is
not about things. Money and possessions are fine, and I’m not ready to
give any of mine up. But at the same time, I have become acutely aware
that in the long view of life, they are not nearly as important as many of
us believed they were when we were young. Likewise, fame is usually
thought of when discussing fortune. Yet fame too, in addition to being
fleeting, doesn’t really measure up when looking at the meaning and
essence of life.
However, it seems that wisdom does come with age, but not at the same
pace. So, I probably will die hundreds of years before it would take me
to learn about the ultimate truths of existence, if, in fact, such a thing
exists. To many, life is just an interval before the inevitability of death,
making some say that life is short to the fortunate and long to the
unfortunate. The true question is, who are the fortunate and who are
the unfortunate? This seems to be a riddle for which there is no answer.
Yet, most agree with legendary musician W. C. Handy, who said that life
is like a trumpet, in that you can only get out of it what you put into it.
For me, life has been a long lesson in humility, as I have continued to find
it to be too important a subject to talk about seriously. I tend to avoid all
unpleasantness through humor. Of course, others often do not find my
thoughts as funny as I do.
I believe the answer is that life is what you want it to be, as we tend to
have an image of ourselves and who we are, and that is what we ultimately
become. We are our own creation; The great athletes, thinkers, writers
or orators are those who work hard to develop themselves in
those areas, whether they have the natural abilities for those
accomplishments or not. Some do so blindly, hoping that what
they have deemed to be their reason to exist is correct and on
course. Others are willing to allow someone else to tell them what they
should do and what should be important to them. Yet, each individual
must, in some manner, determine who they are and why they are here.
Hey, maybe the Hokey Pokey is really what it’s all about.
I’m not myself today and everybody has noticed the improvement 23