strikes and gutters

The Dalai Lama was posed a Big Question by a TIME reader this week: "Do you believe your time on earth has been a success?" HHDL: "Hmmm. That's relative. It's so difficult to say. All human life is some part failure and some part achievement."

The Dude said it at least as well, when he (or was it the Stranger?) noted that life is strikes and gutters, ups and downs. In any case, there is a lot of learning to be done in this world, and most of it is painful. Wow tonight must be for linking because my other favorite movie quote (which if you know me, you'll realize is an approximation - I can't remember verbatim anything and it makes my storytelling very meandering, if not actually entertaining)... My other favorite movie, quote, has to do with the prime suffering years of adolescence and how sad it would be to miss out on all that suffering/learning by sleeping, or watching TV, or texting.

It's difficult to imagine anything being worse than 7th grade (and if you're one of those people who thought middle and high school were amazingly wonderful and life has been all downhill from there, please draw mustaches on all the yearbook pictures of yourself because you got seriously ripped off). But, for adults there are complications beyond a bad curling iron and facial features that grow at varying rates. Such as: what if the most economical option (pick your product) is the least available? Take cars, for example. It is technologically possible for automobiles to last a long long time, at least 2 decades. Manufactured obsolescence, however, ensures that we buy a new gas guzzler way more often than that. Contraception (in the USA, at least) is the same way. There are safe, effective means in widespread use across Europe and Asia but a woman can only purchase this item once, instead of over and over again. And that's not good for anyone except the consumer, ahem, human being. Another such product that comes to mind, after watching some punks in a pick-up deposit their flesh-colored poofy chair next to my apartment's dumpster, is dorm room furniture. Crappy college furniture, being designed for <16-month>

How do we make our way in this crazy world, anyway? I suppose we just have to do our best. The last time I was bowling, I was in Kampala, Uganda, and realized on my 9th turn that the little arrows on the lane are to help guide one's throw (did I say "throw"? I meant "roll.") Of course, had I realized this earlier, I could have broken 3-digits. As it was, my score was well below 70 (ok, maybe it was below 50) but the last one was a strike. I learn slowly, but well. Failure, and achievement. Or: failure, failure, failure, failure, failure...

...achievement. Keep on rollin'.