Some days I come across a quote like the one I chalked this morning and find myself nodding in agreement.
"The beginning is always today."
Other days, I think that is a bunch of bullshit.
We have become dependent on new beginnings. Fresh starts, clean slates, turning the page and trying to reinvent who the fuck we are.
It all sounds wonderful until you find out that turning the page doesn't mean you have finished writing the current chapter.
Sometimes you do not get a new beginning. Sometimes you are stuck right in the miserable middle of something, and the only way out is straight through it.
That is where Don Shepley comes into this morning's Chalkboard. My Oldman came from a generation that didn't spend time discussing personal journeys, emotional awakenings, or finding themselves.
He was English and German by heritage, Catholic by upbringing, and stubborn by disposition.
His philosophy wasn't complicated with over thinking.
Lower your shoulders, bow your neck, chop your feet, and keep moving that big ass forward.
You didn't need to enjoy the circumstances. You didn't even need to like the people involved. You just had to do what needed to be done, and when you were finished, there was usually something else waiting.
I grew up in the Catholic League, where nobody handed out trophies for surviving a difficult Tuesday.
You showed up, you did your job, you took your lumps, you prayed, you went home and you came back the next morning.
We have somehow convinced ourselves that every uncomfortable situation requires a new beginning.
Bad job? Reinvent yourself.
Difficult relationship? Start another chapter.
Life isn't going according to plan? Find a new path.
Sometimes those decisions are necessary. There are circumstances that genuinely demand a change in direction, but sometimes the problem isn't the road.
Sometimes the problem is that we haven't finished walking through the bad neighborhood.
Here is another uncomfortable truth. Only a handful of people in this world believe that you are special. Your children, your parents, a couple good friends, and your aunt in Greensburg.
The overwhelming majority of humanity doesn't give two shits about you. They are busy fighting their own battles.
The world doesn't owe us an audience, an explanation, or a standing ovation for doing what we are supposed to do in the first place.
Do you want a new fucking beginning? Finish what you started, then move on.
Because dragging yesterday's unfinished business into tomorrow does not create a new beginning. It merely changes the scenery around the same old problems.
Which brings me to National Donut Day.
Oak Park Bakery doesn't make the world's greatest donut. There are a dozen better bakeries in Chicagoland.
BUTT, I have been eating those donuts through different chapters of my life. As a boy, as a young man, as a bachelor, as a husband, as a father and now as a sixty-year-old who has collected a few scrapes along the way.
The donut hasn't changed much. The Big Kid eating it sure as hell has and that is my point this morning.
Not every new chapter requires abandoning everything that came before it. Most things are worth carrying forward.
Traditions.
Responsibilities.
Lessons.
Integrity.
The people who helped make us who we are.
At 6:28 this morning, the sun will rise over Riverside. It won't know whether I have settled yesterday's bullshit, paid my debts, kept my promises, or finished what I started.
It will rise anyway.
A sunrise guarantees another day. It doesn't guarantee another beginning.
That part is up to us and some mornings, before we start dreaming about tomorrow, we need to lower our shoulders, bow our necks, and finish what is in sitting front of us.
