Last night I was paying the bills and updating the budget while listening to dramatic soundtrack-style music. My daughter happened to wander by and teased me about how my music didn’t really match with what I was doing. Being in a silly mood (which is most of the time) we quickly imagined the movie trailer concept for dramatic bill-paying:
CUE: Ominous music
EXTERIOR SHOT: Wide pan of L.A. skyline
NARRATOR: In a world spiraling out of control…
EXTERIOR SHOT: Wide shot of people rioting
EXTERIOR SHOT: Flight of military helicopters making a pass over a city square
NARRATOR: …one man…
…must restore balance…
INTERIOR SHOT: Tight shot of fingers typing frantically on keyboard
INTERIOR SHOT: Tight shot of Thom’s face, computer scree reflected in glasses
NARRATOR: …to his checkbook.
SFX: Quicken cash-register sound
INTERIOR SHOT: Man’s hand holding receipts in the foreground, background of woman cleaning litterbox
THOM (Voice-over): Just tell me! Tell me what category these go under!
Anyway, you get the idea. There’s just no such thing as “epic budgeting.” (Even Congress manages to make it pathetic, unfortunately.)
The reality is that that vast majority of our life just isn’t all that dramatic and, truth be told, we’re happy to keep it that way. At the same time it’s a little too easy to forget that it’s not usually the epic, dramatic decisions that shape the course of our lives so much as the little, mundane ones. Do I yell at my kid about their grades, or do I have a quiet conversation and hope it sinks in. Do I stop and help my wife with the dishes or do I go bury myself in the computer?
Nor do we usually solve life’s problems in a single, dramatic battle. You don’t fight your doppleganger id atop a construction crane towering over the skyline and, if you win, suddenly become a more patient parent. No, it’s usually something accomplish gradually, day by day, choice by choice–so gradually we may not even realize we are changing. But we are changing, day by day, choice by choice, whether we want to or not. To channel Yoda, choices lead to actions, actions lead to habits, habits lead to…well, that depends on our habits. Hopefully not to suffering.
Daily life is not epic. There is nothing particularly interesting about most of what we do. Most of us have to just accept that our lives would never make good movies–even Austin Bay would have a difficult time packing in enough explosions to make my life exciting (and I’d rather he didn’t try). On the other hand, we each have some control over our own script. If we don’t like the part we’re playing we can create a character arc for ourselves that transforms us into what we want to be. Just be prepared for it to take a while.
Lives are built one day at a time.
There are many things that we would give our lives for in one dramatic flourish, much tougher AND more noble, what would we LIVE our lives for little bits day by day.
Yeah, the problem with epic is that epic usually means lots of people getting killed.
Murdered by pirates is good!
Most of the time I prefer boring and mundane, because epic usually isn’t good. I prefer my epic moments to be impromptu visits to Utah to see friends or the kids actually doing what they are told without the sighs and eye rolling.
I agree. The Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times” is quite apt.