Pushing Your Buttons

Push one to pause, push two to rewind, push three ...

The Ghost - Le Revenant. British Cartoon Print in the public domain.

Do you ever wish your life had a "pause button? You know, like the one on your T.V., the one you use to mark your place in whatever fictional drama is flickering across your screen. Or maybe it's a documentary, if you are a more serious person, maybe even something masquerading as “the news."

The mundane reasons for activating this culturally ingrained coping mechanism trend toward the common biological urges to grab a snack or empty one's bladder. But what if …

What if you used that magic button to pause and reflect upon the recent pages in the novel "My Life?" It would be a good thing, don't you think? If you could step back away from it and hold it up to the light of scrutiny … would you want to keep reading it?

Of course, one cannot edit the past, at least not in this time dimension. However, if the plot isn't leading in the right direction, why not start a new chapter, one that might lead to a happier ending? Maybe you need some new characters or eliminate some old ones? A change of scenery, perhaps? Well, that's for you to decide. After all, you may be perfectly happy with the direction of the current chapter.

I have a friend, Neil, who keeps a journal, a discipline I've never been able to sustain. He keeps track of the things that have caught his attention in the past week. Every Sunday night, he records the sights, smells, ideas, and events that have flavored his experience since the previous entry. I asked him why he did it.

Life is kind of like a cookbook," he says. "If you don't keep track of the ingredients, you may not like what shows up on your plate."