Unsolved Mysteries

Note: This is song 13 in my 323-part series.

Song: Black Rock

Artist: O.A.R.

The black rock is where I spend my time
Writing a memory or writing a rhyme
Thinking about what is right or wrong

I’ve got to be honest with you. I’ve got nothing for this one. I’m going to give it a shot and see what happens, but there is a very good chance I’m about to waste a few minutes of your time (even more so than normal.)

One of the challenges of being a stay-at-home dad with a borderline workaholic wife* is that I don’t get a lot of time for just me. (Sure, there’s nap time, but that’s time reserved for lunch, cleaning, dishes, ect. And maybe a chance to watch something other than Thomas the Train or Blue’s Clues.) When my wife isn’t working, she believes we’re supposed to be a “family” and do family things, like going to the park or going to the playground or not spending all afternoon watching football. Something about being in a relationship and spending quality time together or something. I wasn’t really paying attention.

*She’s not really a workaholic. She just takes a lot of pride in her work and wants it done really well. While that’s an admirable trait, it can lead to working long hours to ensure things run smoothly.

So when I do get some time to myself, it’s like a gift from the gods on par with Anne Hathaway asking me to the Oscars after-party with her. What that means is I have to make my own time. Most often, that means loading the little guy up in the stroller and hoping he doesn’t want to talk as I fire up the ol’ iPod and hope there’s an interesting podcast on tap.

All that is to say I don’t get as much time as I’d like to just sit and contemplate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As far as I know, they still exist. I just don’t have (or make) the time to examine what those entities mean in contemporary society. It also means I can’t examine the other pressing issues of our day – What does the upheaval in Egypt mean for the Middle East? What does the Republican Party’s shift further to the right mean for the future of the party? And most importantly, what players are going to exceed expectations and which will fall below expectations this year so I can adequately assemble my fantasy baseball team?

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. I’m not sure how much examining I’m supposed to do to ensure my life is still worthwhile. I check each day to make sure I’m still breathing and I make sure I don’t have anything stuck in my teeth before I leave the house. Is that enough? Did Socrates leave a checklist of things to examine? Why do I resort to a Donald Rumsfeld style of asking myself questions in these blogs? Was that last question an examination of myself?  And if it was, is it bad that’s the most insightful thing I’ve discovered about myself since I figured out that shapes, clouds and a blanket meant that Blue wanted to look at the clouds and see what shapes they could find?

Eventually I’ll take the time to figure out the mysteries of life. Right now, I’m figuring out the mysteries of Blue and his blasted clues.

Next Song: Boys of Summer
Artist: Don Henley