The Path You Take and the Path Untaken

Hi, HI, HIIIIII.

I have a VERY important question for all of you this week.

VERY IMPORTANT, I SAID!

What -

WHAT –

WHAT ––

IS YOUR FAVORITE SITCOM THEME SONG?!?

Because I was a kid in the 80s, the golden age of cartoon theme songs, my favorites tend to be in the vein of Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Gummi Bears, plus of course Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.

They were jams. Fight me on it.

Here's why I ask:

(first, because I love pop culture and it's fun, but also)

This week I was reminded of the theme song to Who's The Boss, and I did not remember that the lyrics are a wisdom drop:

There's a time for love and a time for living.

You take the chance and face the wind.

An open road and a road that's hidden.

A brand new life around the bend.

There were times when I lost a dream or two.

Found the trail, and at the end was you.

There's a path you take and a path untaken.

The choice is up to you, my friend.

Nights are long, but you're on your way.

To a brand new life,

Brand new life,

Brand new life around the bend.

OKAY, 1980s! YOU DIDN'T DO EVERYTHING RIGHT, BUT YOU NAILED THIS ONE!

Wisdom is wisdom no matter where you find it. We've got all the idioms, the clichés:

the best laid plans of mice and men

life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

et al

AND we've got TV theme songs.

How's your path these days?

My path has been anything but linear. Sometimes I meet new people and try to give the quick version of the different careers I've had and the different paths I've followed and it takes some time for new friends to make any sense of it.

We each have a million personal paths. And the year we've been living through has certainly shifted our collective path.

The thing I think about the most is: your path is just your path. You learn a little something new one day, you try a little something different the next, an unexpected hardship befalls, you edit the path, you take a new one, you carry on.

My two cents?

The lyric, "found the trail and at the end was you"?

I THINK THE YOU IS YOU.

Not a somebody else.

Somewhere along your winding, twisting, windswept, trees-blocking-your-way, mudslides, rockslides, flower-lined, sunny, stormy path...

You find you.

The only way it doesn't work is if you stop looking.

If you stop choosing.

If you stop growing.

If you get stuck in some idea of what you thought your path was supposed to be.

To me, that becomes a most certain recipe for discontent.

It's pretty easy to get caught up in 'what if.'

To regret the path untaken, to regret the path taken.

But.

Let yourself change and you'll become more you.

As Octavia Butler told us,

"All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.

The only lasting truth is change."

The path to yourself is a collection of choices. All you have to do is make the choice over and over again to show up.

Through the mess.

Through the storm.

The path will disappear and you'll find a new one.

Mourning the old is okay.

Shedding the old is okay.

Reckoning with change is okay.

Fearing change is okay.

Just keeping making the choices and finding the next step.

And. In case you need some more television wisdom:

Duck Tales reminds us "the worse of messes becomes successes."

The Facts of Life reminds us, "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have . . . the facts of life."

Diff'rent Strokes reminds us "the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some."

Do not blame me if you go down a rabbit hole of theme songs on youtube for the next three days. Or do. You're welcome.