“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”
- Thomas Carlyle
I've really got to start switching to decaf because for some reason I'm feeling a bit jittery with my outlook on life lately.
Sitting at my kitchen table the other night, while eating a bowl of cereal that I like to call my supper, I was looking through the television guide and noticed all these award shows that are coming up. Granted I didn't watch the Oscars, but that isn't stopping the networks from creating new ways of giving famous people a bit more exposure. In this next month alone, there will be the Country Music Awards, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and I'm sure some movie star will be placing his/her hands into concrete.
So what's my beef? It's the fact that as you get older your achievements become very abstract and the rewards for any effort you may put forth are often sort of vague.
How am I coming to this realization? For the answers we need to go for a journey my friends, a journey back in time. Buckle up.
When I was a little boy in school, it must have been first grade, I remember that I got a gold star for being able to add one plus one. My answer was probably seven. I never was that good at math, but my teacher was one of those people who subscribed to the philosophy that as long as you tried hard you deserved a sticker.
Now this doesn't help me when it comes time to balance my checking account, but I'll save that for another Sunday.
Moving forward, I entered Boy Scouts. Yes, all the Molloy boys were, at one time, Boy Scouts, which I'm not sure they want known to the general public as we probably weren't the best poster boys for upstanding youth. But I digress.
Back then you couldn't tie your shoes without earning some type of merit badge. Think I'm kidding? True story; my brother Chris and I earned our wilderness survival badges by shivering one night in a “shelter” that was so pathetic the squirrels voted to put themselves above us on the evolutionary chain. Then I was off to high school. The awkwardness and puberty aside, I was able to score myself an art showcase and a diploma for my troubles.
But now I'm all grown up and there just aren't any gala events in honor for anything us “regular” people do.
Seriously, when was the last time you watched a speech being given by the Best Supporting Cashier in a convenience category?
See what I mean? Doesn't happen.
Aside from a yearly raise, the most any of us has to look forward to is a gold watch when we retire.
But once, just once, after a long day of changing light bulbs, I'd like someone to hand me a gold statue so I can say with swelling pride, “I'd like to thank the academy ...”
Auburn native Bradley Molloy's column appears here,
each Sunday, in The Citizen.
He can be reached at lovonian@hotmail.com
I've really got to start switching to decaf because for some reason I'm feeling a bit jittery with my outlook on life lately.
Sitting at my kitchen table the other night, while eating a bowl of cereal that I like to call my supper, I was looking through the television guide and noticed all these award shows that are coming up. Granted I didn't watch the Oscars, but that isn't stopping the networks from creating new ways of giving famous people a bit more exposure. In this next month alone, there will be the Country Music Awards, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and I'm sure some movie star will be placing his/her hands into concrete.
So what's my beef? It's the fact that as you get older your achievements become very abstract and the rewards for any effort you may put forth are often sort of vague.
How am I coming to this realization? For the answers we need to go for a journey my friends, a journey back in time. Buckle up.
When I was a little boy in school, it must have been first grade, I remember that I got a gold star for being able to add one plus one. My answer was probably seven. I never was that good at math, but my teacher was one of those people who subscribed to the philosophy that as long as you tried hard you deserved a sticker.
Now this doesn't help me when it comes time to balance my checking account, but I'll save that for another Sunday.
Moving forward, I entered Boy Scouts. Yes, all the Molloy boys were, at one time, Boy Scouts, which I'm not sure they want known to the general public as we probably weren't the best poster boys for upstanding youth. But I digress.
Back then you couldn't tie your shoes without earning some type of merit badge. Think I'm kidding? True story; my brother Chris and I earned our wilderness survival badges by shivering one night in a “shelter” that was so pathetic the squirrels voted to put themselves above us on the evolutionary chain. Then I was off to high school. The awkwardness and puberty aside, I was able to score myself an art showcase and a diploma for my troubles.
But now I'm all grown up and there just aren't any gala events in honor for anything us “regular” people do.
Seriously, when was the last time you watched a speech being given by the Best Supporting Cashier in a convenience category?
See what I mean? Doesn't happen.
Aside from a yearly raise, the most any of us has to look forward to is a gold watch when we retire.
But once, just once, after a long day of changing light bulbs, I'd like someone to hand me a gold statue so I can say with swelling pride, “I'd like to thank the academy ...”
Auburn native Bradley Molloy's column appears here,
each Sunday, in The Citizen.
He can be reached at lovonian@hotmail.com