YOLO

Even though I have a smart phone, I am not all that smart when it comes to using it. I can easily take pictures but can never seem to remember how to email them. I can use the keypad to text messages, but my thumbs always seem to press two letters at the same time and almost always the wrong one. I know there are a few shortcuts to use when typing such as “u” for “you” and “r” for “are”, but that’s my limit. That’s it.

Thus, when Arlena and I attended grandson Zach’s high school graduation and listened to the class president speak about YOLO, I had no idea what she was talking about until she explained. I seemed to be the odd man out. Everyone else, including my wife, knew YOLO stood for “you only live once”. After getting over my personal embarrassment for being out of the loop, I listened to a wonderful address. Here’s hoping Zach and his classmates take to heart what she had to say and make sure they live this life, the only life they are given, to the best of their ability. There is no do-over to life.

To be sure we can all look backs on our lives and regret the mistakes we have made and wish we had done otherwise. But they are water over the dam. We can and should also recognize the more-often-than-not good choices we have made. Sadly, of course, a bad decision years ago can have a profound affect on the rest of our lives. A foolish act can leave us permanently disabled. That does not mean our life is over. It simply means that our life is altered and we have to adapt to a life that is different than what it might have been had we acted differently.

Such is life. Lamenting our mistakes might be cathartic and probably is, but we must move on: YOLO, as they say. “What now?” we ask. “Where do we go from here?” Those are questions that have no time limit, no age limit. It would be wonderful if we so learned from our juvenile or early-adult mistakes that we would never, ever do something foolish again. But, again, such is life. We don’t always, if ever, do so. We just tend to make less of them. For that we can be thankful.

The truth is that even our mistakes, our foolish actions, our sins, can be beneficial. We learn from them. We move on. And when we look back on our lives, even as we regret those mistakes, those foolish and harmful acts, those sins, they have brought us to where we are today. And if we like where we are today, then we can even be somewhat thankful for them. Without them we would be in a different place.

That does not mean, of course, that we deliberately do what is foolish and/or sinful. That is utterly foolish. It does means that we become more and more aware of who we are, the gifts and talents we possess and the ones we do not. It means for me as frustrated as I sometimes get when it comes to using technology that is above my grade level, that I not get angry at my limitations but recognize that they are the result of my age and my generation and smile. I don’t want a do-over. Once is enough and sufficient, thank you.