As you may know, I am a huge Flaming Lips fan. I often share their view of the world and that is probably why I am such a fan. I really feel that they have a logical view of the world and that's the best way to look at things, with logic. One of their songs asks the question, "Do you realize, we are floating in space?" And this morning that question seemed to really hit home with me. It was just short run and I didn't start thinking about this until about half way through my run, but it seemed like it lasted a while. I was running through the park near my home and I looked up through the trees and saw hundreds of twinkling stars. Right then the lyrics to that song started playing in  my head. And for the first time in the million times hearing the song, the lyrics seemed to actually take hold. "Do you realize we are floating in space?" 

Looking up at all the stars, galaxies, and whatever else is floating in space I realized that the chances of me ever existing are very, very small. There are literally millions or billions or whatever unimaginably high number of other galaxies out there. Within each of those galaxies is an even larger number of stars. And around each of those stars there are possibly planets orbiting it, like us orbiting our sun. So what are the odds that out of all of those galaxies, stars and planets that we would end up with the perfect storm of everything needed to create life? Our planet needs to be the perfect distance from the sun so we don't freeze or burn up. We need an ozone to contain our air to breathe. We need sunlight to grow food for fuel. Think about what it takes to sustain life and how unlikely it is that we have it, right here.

Now, as I am thinking all of this and running I start to think about what it is I'm going to do with my time living. Because when you think about the unlikeliness of ever existing, it's even far more unlikely that we are alive RIGHT NOW. How many people spend their lives just going to work and getting by until they die. Don't get me wrong, most people create a family and have love and get to their own taste of the human experience. But is that really all you want to do with your limited time here? Well, today wasn't my first time coming to the realization that this is my one shot at something. Tomorrow could be the end and if it was, I wouldn't have been satisfied with what I had done to now. Sure I have love with my wife and family, I have the best little girl ever created. But am I happy with myself? Just about anybody can create a family, there's just more out there. I want to be part of the bigger picture and I want to go out and do and experience because the end is truly the end. 

So, what am I doing to change my path? Well, I am taking classes to move toward a better, more rewarding career. I have not set my sights on any one thing because I have found narrowing it down to one thing really puts a limit on you. Instead, I'm only limiting it down to something that helps people. Whether it be in nursing, fire fighting, helping people regain confidence and losing weight.... Just something that helps someone! At the same time I am going to do an IRONMAN!

That's right, on September 9th, 2012 I will try my hand at Ironman in Madison, Wisconsin.