This Can Change Your Life

Milestones

Every once in a while we reach a point of satisfaction. We feel a sense of accomplishment for hitting a goal we set out to achieve. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t have goals, and we definitely wouldn’t be human if we didn’t desire more.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about being a “young professional”. I’m talking about graduating from college, starting a career of your choice, and learning, feeling.
Now with a definition like that, most of us in our mid-twenties to mid-thirties wouldn’t qualify to be called “young professionals”. We graduated from college/graduate school but certainly arent in a career that follows our education. And with an economy like this, where most of us are underemployed, using the word “professional” to describe us feels like an insult.
I hear the condescension now, screams of “get over it, we had it rougher than you.” Why don’t you “baby-boomers” get over with your career and just retire so that us “young-professionals” can move up to attain what we worked hard for, what we studied hard for? To achieve what most of you who raised us to achieve, to begin a job that sprouts a career.
In the Presidential Election of 2012 there was a lot of talk about fairness. “The rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes.” “Wall Street got bailed out but Main Street didn’t.” “Healthcare is a universal right.” “If you worked hard you should be able to enjoy the benefits of Social Security.” “It’s not fair that after you spent years fighting a war for your country that you have to come home only to fight for a decent job.”
Those arguments are valid and should be debated, but what about us “young-professionals”? Did you forget, we’re the next future of the country not those kids in K through Twelve, they have a long way to go still. Is it fair that you ignore our plight in favor of debating “baby-genius programs”?
Who do I mean by “you”? I mean You! You the baby-boomer who passed the retirement age but won’t recognize reality and retire. Grandpa, if you haven’t made it to executive level yet, you should call it a night. The truth is that you’ll never get there in that company so stop the denial because it’s hurting, my, your grandson’s career development. Just like you want me to shut up about this piece, I want you to shut up about how the Great Recession cut your 401K in half. Retire.
I’m talking about You, the politician who rambles on and on about terrorism that kills less than .05% of the population annually yet you can’t compromise on legislation to build the economy that helps business, which in turn helps me, the voter. Do you know how much harm underemployment is doing to my community? I don’t know exactly but I bet the percentage is way higher than terrorism. Sorry, I forgot that the only voters that matter to you are those receiving Social Security, Medicare etc because apparently “young-professionals” dont vote a.k.a. stroke your ego with a ballot or cash bag that you deem worthy enough to pay attention to.
I’m talking about You! The business that keeps on yapping about “this crop of applicants don’t have the necessary skills we need” so instead we’re eliminating the position so that 55 year old Ted whose been u doing the same tasks for the past 55 years can absorb this workload without a raise in salary because this way we “save the company money”. And by the way, damned sure that any 23 year old can use communication technology better than the half baked Communications Directors who sent out that message about “us” not having “the necessary skills.”
An I’m talking about You! My fellow “young-professional” who refuses to vote for real people who want real change. You, my fellow “young-professional” who chooses to stay mute on our plight. And you, my fellow “young-professional” who isn’t feeling what I’m feeling because things are in your favor, just shut the fuck up with your whack “advice” about how to get ahead. We did everything you did, the good education, the internships, the internships, it kind of rhymes with slaveships and worked part-time while in college. All that hard work only to get a job as a bartender. All that hard work only to graduate from college to move in with more roommates. Sorry, I prefer to stay at home, the next step after college should be your own single bedroom place or studio. Quite frankly my friend, you’re just luckier so join our ranks or fall with the old guard.
All we want is to achieve our goals just like you, the boomer, the politician, the business, the “young-professional”. All we want is to meet that milestone.

The Letter to GoD

Thursday May 16, 2013
Dear God:
                  I want to thank you for making me. It's a miracle that a perfect God can make something as flawed as I am. And as flawed as humanity is, for that matter. I want to thank you for giving me this crippling depression, the shitty up bringing, the rape by my own brother, the fucked up family life, and the suicidal tendencies. Thanks for making failure my touchstone. After all, after years of working 100 hour weeks to build a business, who shouldn't expect their business partner to get drunk, assault someone and wind up on the front page of the local paper - in his fucking company shirt? No surprise that business in our little town dried up afterwards, is it? Thanks for making me an apparently easy mark. It's fantastic that in my life I've never made a major purchase that didn't result in misery - including the fucking house that is currently falling into a hole in the ground. Listen: I've heard that I should be thankful for You. I heard it all my life and lived it. Throughout the violent, abusive upbringing. Throughout the laughing, abuse, and torture by other children. Throughout the rape (there it is again) by my own drug-addled brother. Throughout failure after failure. I'm 21 years old and I honestly, truthfully feel that the BEST thing I can do for the world is eat a bullet. The wife (who, as you know is very sick) and kids (one of whom, as you know, was blessed with mental retardation and the other of whom, as you know, tried to kill himself) are the only thing keeping me from doing it. That's pretty fucking pathetic when you think about it. So thank you. And excuse me for asking, but do you think that instead of a trial, tribulation, or physical or metaphorical ass-raping by seemingly everyone I meet - could you just leave me the fuck alone? Please? I'm not tasking you to tilt the odds in my favor, just stop tilting them against me. Please?
Sincery,
A

The Harlem Shake

                                     The Harlem Shake 

                            Enjoy your Life by Watching The Harlem Shake

Life Is a Journey, Not a Destination

Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lynn H. Hough? Aerosmith? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with the following:

Life is a journey, not a destination.

I’ve searched the RWE.org database without luck and did a text search through over 1100 pages of his essays. I believe this is a misattribution. Any insight you have into the lineage of this quote would be much appreciated.
Quote Investigator: QI believes that an exact match for the expression above has not been found in the oeuvre of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yet, Emerson did write a thematically related remark [RWEJ]:

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.

This sentence suggested a psychological vantage point in which the intermediate advances of the journey were representative of the completion of the journey. This is arguably a distinct statement from the questioner’s saying which is listed in “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” without attachment to a specific person [DPLJ].
The earliest close match located by QI appeared in 1920 in a periodical called “The Christian Advocate”. The phrase was used by the theologian Lynn H. Hough within his outline for a Sunday School Lesson discussing a letter from Simon Peter. Bold face has been added to the phrase here and some phrases below [LHCA]:

He wanted his friends to realize that life is a journey and not a destination; that the heart must be set upon those matters of character which are eternal and not upon those matters of sensation which pass away.

Interesting precursors of the expression were in circulation in the previous century. In 1854 “The Sunday at Home: A Family Magazine for Sabbath Reading” printed a “Page for the Young” with the following advice [SHPY]:

You should learn in early youth that your life is a journey, not a rest. You are travelling to the promised land, from the cradle to the grave.

In 1855 another religious text used a variant phrase and provided an explanation [PSJC]:

All life is a journey, not a home; it is a road, not the country; and those transient enjoyments which you have in this life, lawful in their way,—those incidental and evanescent pleasures which you may sip,—are not home; they are little inns only upon the road-side of life, where you are refreshed for a moment, that you may take again the pilgrim-staff and journey on, seeking what is still before you—the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

A decade later the passage above was reprinted in a collection entitled “A Cyclopaedia of Illustrations of Moral and Religious Truths”; however, it was labeled ANON [CRJB].
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1920 “life is a journey and not a destination” was written in a book by the pastor Lynn H. Hough as discussed previously in this article.
In 1922 another variant of the saying was printed which emphasized an experiential theme instead of a religious one [RARP]:

But we stupid mortals, or most of us, are always in haste to reach somewhere else, forgetting that the zest is in the journey and not in the destination.

In 1926 the trope was applied to the domain of love within a verse using eccentric capitalization [RDYF]:

LOVE To SOME men Is NOT a DESTINATION. It is just A FLIGHT OF FANCY. A RUSHING EMOTION between BUSINESS and AMBITION that Keeps them FOREVER ON THE HOP.

In 1929 an essay by a high school student employed a version of the saying with the word “success”. The words were enclosed in quotation marks suggesting that the adage was already in circulation [IWTP]:

You know, “success is not a destination, but a journey.”

Yet another variant of the expression was in circulation by 1930 [JASR]:

Prof J. C. Archer of Yale University will speak on “Religion a Journey and Not a Destination” at the monthly “church night” gathering at Memorial church tomorrow night.

In 1935 a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer presented a variant [IWCP]:

“Helen, somebody has said that happiness is a journey—not a destination. You have it as you go along. You’ve been very happy with two different people.

In 1936 the book “I Knew Them in Prison” by Mary B. Harris invoked two versions of the adage at once [DPMH] [MTCM]:

Reformation, like education, is a journey, not a destination.

In 1937 another instance of the maxim about education was printed in a California newspaper [GSSD]:

Reporting on education, Mrs. S. G. Stooke said that education is a journey and not a destination, for we must keep developing.

In 1993 the rock band Aerosmith released the song Amazing as a single. The lyrics were written by Steven Tyler and Richie Supa, and they included an instance of the saying [AZAS]:

Life’s a journey not a destination
And I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings

In the 2006 movie “Peaceful Warrior” a character named Dan Millman was led on a three-hour trek to a remote location by his mentor, a character named ‘Socrates’ who embodied a wise man archetype. Millman was excited and happy during the trip because he expected to be shown something important and when he was shown a non-descript rock he was initially disappointed. But after reflection Millman said the following to Socrates [PWJD]:

Dan Millman: The journey… the journey is what brings us happiness… not the destination

Many of the examples above conform to the following flexible phrasal template. The linguistic term snowclone is used for these collections of related phrases:

X is a journey, not a destination

In conclusion, current evidence indicates that the phrase under investigation is an anonymous modern proverb that entered circulation by 1920.

Love and Life

ALL my past life is mine no more;
The flying hours are gone,
Like transitory dreams given o'er,
Whose images are kept in store
By memory alone.
The time that is to come is not;
How can it then be mine?
The present moment 's all my lot;
And that, as fast as it is got,
Phillis, is only thine.
Then talk not of inconstancy,
False hearts, and broken vows;
If I by miracle can be
This live-long minute true to thee,
'Tis all that Heaven allows.