This is what sometimes happens on Substack:

It makes you ponder anew this thing called life.

This morning

Ben Wakeman

started my day with a post I can’t seem to get away from: When You Arrive, Send Me a Postcard 10 Things I Would Tell My Younger Self

“Living is hard.” 

That’s how Ben started his post and I actually felt my brain screech to a halt. Is living really hard? This gift of waking up every morning? Or is it “easy, and the cotton is high” … like the song says? Or maybe it’s a bit of both or absolutely neither? Perhaps, beyond the hard times and the sweet times, it’s just what we make of it. Round and round we go.

It took me awhile to ponder my way through that first line before I wandered down to his 10 Lessons he would tell his young artist self. Who needs another list of 10 lessons? But, I skim through the list and one grabbed me ... and then another ... then two more ... then, I decided to really read at least one.

Started with #1 which I already know (the result of 172 self-help books, mostly already forgotten). 1. You might be unique, but you’re not special.

Suddenly, I start thinking about all the ways I really want to be special ... I want to be as kind as Mother Teresa (which I have to google to remember whether or not she uses the “h” in her name ... obviously not); with as much smart grit as Amanda Palmer and her 8-foot bride; as much contagious humor as Annie Lamott; as life-wise as Maya Angelou (with her molasses voice, of course), as word-beautiful as Amanda Gorman ... (aha a clue, maybe I should change my name to Amanda) ... and I go on until I get to perfection, at which point I would be special … truly special.

I move on to #2 ...

2. No one is watching you so stop performing.

But then notice that time is ticking away, calling me to do what I started out to do before Ben so insistently called me to ponder my life. I must be on, but #4 says, “take me with you ...”

4. You must know what you want to get it.

That’s going to take more than a day.

Thank you, Ben.