Spontaneous Combustion: “The ignition of a substance of body from the oxidation of its own constituents without heat from any external source (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).”
Don’t worry, this column isn’t going to be some lecture on some Chemistry phenomenon; I’m sorry if that’s what you were hoping it was going to be about, but I don’t know much about the subject (I just thought it was a funny title, so play along and humor me).
Sometimes the best-laid plans go wrong. No matter how perfect something may seem at first, it just may not be destined for success. But, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t fun while it lasted.
The dictionary (You can tell I had fun reading the dictionary the other night) defines spontaneous as: “Coming or resulting from a natural impulse of tendency, without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).”
It seems to me that from day to day we lose ourselves in work and forget to have fun. Besides, that’s what life should be all about, having fun every now and then.
I think that acting on our instincts more often will allow us a break for the monotony of the daily grind. Who knows, maybe it will bring with it some great times; or we may just make complete fools out of ourselves…a little of both is good from time to time, I suppose.
I saw the recently released Robin Williams movie Patch Adams recently and I think that it really shows that all we need is a little laughter every once in a while. During the movie (Sorry to ruin the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet) there are times when Robin Williams is talking to the Deans of the medical school and he says that all he wants to do is make people laugh. They didn’t find it funny though. Without the laughter, I think the daily routine would be a whole lot more boring…to say the least.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is important to have fun sometimes, no matter how bad a situation may seem. It’s been said that laughter is the best medicine, so I guess it must be true; besides, it sounds like a reasonable idea. It’s definitely worth trying every now and again.
So that brings us back to Spontaneous Combustion (or spontaneity that doesn’t seem to work out as originally hoped for). In our continual search for good times (& great oldies…no just kidding, this isn’t a radio ad) we may get so caught up in the moment that we lose sight of reality. Not that there’s anything bad about that, but it may be disappointing if things don’t work out the way we expect them to.
So if things go wrong, like they inevitably will sometimes, it’s important not to let that ruin the next good time that’s on its way. It’s important to realize when it’s time to let go and move on. Enjoy things as they happen, but don’t get bogged down when things don’t always go right. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? I don’t, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The ever-philosophic Jerry Seinfeld once said: “To me, if life boils down to one significant thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving. Unfortunately, this means that for the rest of our lives we’re going to be looking for boxes (SeinLanguage).”
He then goes on to say that death is our last big move and only then do we ever find the truly perfect box. Hopefully we’ll learn to live before then. If not, it would be an awful waste of life. Life is truly one exciting thrill ride: it’s got ups and downs, and we never know what’s next. It’s the only ride that you only experience once, so enjoy it while it lasts (I just hope the line isn’t too long).
“Life is a highway/I want to ride it all night long/If you’re going my way/I want to drive it all night long.” -Tom Cochrane, “Life Is A Highway,” 1991.