It’s that time of year I suppose, one eye looking nostalgically back and the other prophetically forward, leaving us somewhere in the middle and somewhat cross-eyed. Cross-eyed, or possibly peering out of the corners of both eye’s simultaneously? It’s dependent upon the direction you were oriented when nostalgia struck, and the dexterity of your eyes.

Many moons ago, while traipsing around on the high school gridiron, opposing players sent my eyes wandering in such a manner on a few occasions. Surprisingly, a luxurious mullet does not provide any protection from concussive blows to the head, but you look absolutely stunning while you’re unconscious. So it goes.

This time around we not only have old and new year’s to look back and forth upon, but an old and new decade to deal with as well. If you have managed to not yet ponder the upcoming decade, some are not prone to such ponderings, may I suggest that you don’t.

Leave the days, months, and years of the looming decade to themselves. Let their coming and going be of no concern to you, rather, merrily plod about the present without a thought of you and yours in 2030. To do otherwise can potentially leave one in a general state of melancholy with a slight case of malaise.

“Can potentially” is a lie, it will. I was not warned as you have been. Perhaps too little too late, but you have been warned just the same. So from this point forward, if you choose to proceed with a ten-year prophetic projection, all sympathy will be rescinded and smugly replaced with “I told you so”.

“Melancholy”…sounds like something one might contract from wrestling with cantaloupe. “I had that muskmelon right where I wanted it, then I took a honeydew to the ear and stumbled over a casaba. A witness, I believe his name was Tracy Byrd, said that I dipped down, spun around, and do-si-doed, but I don’t remember much of that. All I know is that I came to an hour later with a mullet full of watermelon seeds and melancholy ear.”

A couple thousand years ago, the ancient Stoics warned that the past should be left in the past, and the future should not be excessively contemplated. They told us so. I expect no sympathy for the brief bout of melancholy I contracted from pondering such things as, “at the end of this decade I am 47…that means I’ll be…” or “the kids are in their 20’s now…” or “I got these underwear for Christmas in 2010…”.

A decade is too broad of a pondering to safely traverse…forward or back…especially in brittle underwear.

As has been said, “We stand on a narrow peak with the abyss of the ages on either side.” Whether you look to your left or to your right, forward or back, matters not, you are where you are as a result of your past, and you will be where you will be because of what you do in all the “nows” on your narrow peak of the present.

So, do good, and “If you drink don’t drive…do the watermelon crawl. Have fun ya' all”.