11315 Days of Glory

Poor Earth... It has now been subjected to 31 years of me being on it. Or, as the title suggests, 11,315 days (give or take a leap day or 8).

Well, all I can truly say is "Happy Birthday to me, all hail.... YOU!"

What? Yeah. See, it's come to my attention that life is pretty crappy without the friends, family, and comrades we associate with. We come from different places, we will probably all go different places, but the crossroads of life where people meet, and sometimes journey together for seconds, minutes, days, and years, well my friends, those are the reasons life is so amazing and great. My life has been amazing and great, and it's thanks to you. Even Ditter.

So what have I learned in my 31 years? Well, some of life's simplest lessons.

Do unto others... That may seem ridiculously simple, but, it is about as true of a lesson as one can learn. And it's difficult. It's even difficult to do so in a selfless way. In some respect, many times people "do unto others..." for purposes of making themselves feel better or elevate themselves to a level of moral authority. That's kinda icky really, it takes what is intended to be something done out of love and respect for fellow humanity and makes it a perverse thing. So, do unto others is a good rule when the intention is (as best as one can do) altruistic.

Friendship and love can last forever... but it takes work. That work is well worth the effort.

Take responsibility for your actions. That can be hard. It can hurt. It can hurt those you care about. But, things in your control are in your control. The mistakes we make are usually repairable.

Help. Sometimes people ask for help, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they don't know they need it. Help when you can. Support when you can't.

Be respectful of others opinions. Surprise, everyone's different and even those that agree usually don't agree 100%. So, be respectful of others opinions.

...

and more. But why be preachy?

Let's get to the latest fun...

Last week I had the opportunity to serve on a jury. This was my first time (They found me, I don't know how, but they found me... RUN FOR IT MARTY!!!). I got to serve on a criminal case where the charges were 1st Degree Attempted Sexual Assault, Armed Robbery, and False Imprisonment. The maximum sentence was 81 years for the accused.

Not Guilty on all three counts, and what was more amazing to me is what we on the jury guessed really happened instead of what this man was accused of. It appears that to hide a coke habit, and to put guilt on the accuser's boyfriend, this accuser made up this lie (which she admitted she never would have taken to the police without her mother's coaxing) and threw this guy under the bus so as not to admit to her discretion. WOW.

Now, again, that's our guess. What we certainly saw was that the story she told was not true, so our best theory as to the truth came up with this terrible string of events.

My play is well on it's way. Act II is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it finished in the next couple weeks. I am very excited to set up a "reading" of it with some actor friends of mine to further develop it, and hopefully, I can work with some acquaintances on the West Coast to start a workshop.

Finally, I want to congratulate the cast and crew of both Milwaukee Rep's Route 66 and the UW-Parkside Theatre Department cast and crew of As You Like It for putting on some exceptional theatre I got to see this weekend. Bravo!

With that, I would like to leave you all with a quote:

"Never Start Something You Can't Fini..."