The Good Week

I’ve had plenty. If we get a set amount of happiness in this life then I am seriously screwed. I have used up enough good times to fuel fifty lifetimes. Ever since childhood I have been a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. It all started when I pulled my groin in the 5th grade. I couldn’t walk for 2 days. Oh yeah that reminds me…as a kid I never went to a doctor. It’s part of the Korean-American experience. Anything in my house growing up could be healed with with Tiger Balm, Vaseline or Ampicillin. That’s it…that’s all you need. Sometimes when you were seriously injured you needed all three. Broken bones usually required just the Tiger Balm and Ampicillin….unless the bone was sticking out of the body. When the bone is observed sticking out of the body, dab some Vaseline around it…it will help with the sting.

Oh yeah so I couldn’t walk because somehow I had pulled my right groin. So I had to hobble around using an upside down golf club as my cane. I was lying on the couch watching Gilligan’s Island when I had this epiphany. All of those guys were just walking around the island without a care in the world. I thought how lucky they were to not have to use an upside-down golf club as a cane while reeking of Tiger Balm. My life before the groin pull was wonderful…I just didn’t appreciate how good I had it. So from then on I realized that I really had no right to complain about anything. And in some weird way it made my life lighter…somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that I’m actually living a pretty charmed life. It’s all relative.

So like the King of France 200 years ago umm Lou….probably thought he had it good. Would anyone in their right mind trade their current life for his? I wouldn’t. I need espresso, beer, TiVo, Pizza, Air Conditioning, and the city of Las Vegas. That dude never realized what he was missing. Conversely, I may be living the greatest life any man could be blessed to have and just be too stupid to realize it. It’s all about happiness really isn’t it? Are you happy? There is happiness in the struggle. We think winning the lottery would be great until we actually come into the money and realize that having wealth is like never being hungry again. Not being hungry makes food suck. Being able to buy anything in the world only devalues things. Having access to espresso, beer, TiVo and Las Vegas makes my life greater than a King’s. Imagine adding people that we love to this mix. Valhalla.

All of the happiness that I need in life can be found sitting in my backyard manning my grill with a beer in my hand, my kids at my feet, my wife somewhere at home, a few friends on their way over, and some meat.

That’s it. Really that’s it. Anything that supports this lifestyle is amazing. You don’t need that much really. I don’t need a giant house, I don’t need to send my kid to private schools, I just need my wife and my kids and my beer and my grill and my meat and a few friends coming over. The beauty lies in seeing the beauty.

So I’m ranting and ranting all to get to this one point. As parents, no matter how difficult the situation, we have as a baseline the love of our kids. No matter what happens in this world, it can never outweigh this happiness. And no matter how brief our time may be with them…having them in our life will outweigh the grief that we pay for love. Damn I’m ranting again.

What I really wanted to say is...this may be one of the greatest weeks of my life. Now I know…I say this every year on St. Patrick’s Day because for me St. Patrick’s Day usually ranks up there as happiest day of the year. It is absolutely insane to combine a day as beautiful and happy and wondrous as St. Patrick’s Day with another incredible once in a year event….yes March Madness. The NCAA basketball tournament is the greatest sporting event ever devised and proof that the human race can do something good. Ok add the fact that my beloved Bruins had a really great season. Ok add the fact that me and the wife are expecting our second kid any day now. Ok now add to that the fact that I got to see a great concert on Thursday only to come home and get to watch my beloved Bruins on TiVo win their round one game against Weber. Yesterday I got to cook up carne asada in my back yard with the kid/wife/friends/beer combo. Add the fact that the weather this week in NoCal has been truly remarkable. Add the fact that this year St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday. I have Guinness and Bulmers and Tullamore Dew and Redbreast and Jamesons and Black Bush and colcannon and boxty and lamb stew waiting for me at home. These things aren’t hard to achieve. But for me this is grace. My kid, my wife, my homeland of Ireland, my friends, my whisky, my Bruins. No man has it any finer. And I’ll gladly fight the first man to differ. Happy St. Patrick's Day my friends. Slainte!