Seize Or Be Seized

What if “carpe diem” really means “Better you than me, sucker”?

I think about that sometimes. I’m not entirely sure where the line between genuine encouragement and dirty secret schadenfreude is. But I bet it’s a lot blurrier than you think.

What if the people telling you that you should quit your job because it’s creatively unfulfilling or that you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur (you don’t) are the kind that, when things are on an even keel, would stand up and rip the life jacket off and tell you to toss the oars as far as you could throw them? That doesn’t seem responsible or prudent, does it? That seems feckless and selfish and immature and like someone who gets bored when there’s not enough drama and has to go and make mountains out of molehills and get everyone at each other’s throats and then just stand in the corner smirking while surrounded by a five-alarm melee. Don’t tell me that doesn’t feel good once in a while. Like pushing your shopping cart into the corral as hard as you can and hearing it ricochet off all of the other carts and pretending it’s an action movie explosion as you stride away without looking back, not even once.

Or maybe it really is just nudging you out of the nest so that you can fly soar like everyone says. Yeah, that.