Friday, my neighbor/clients, will be closing on a house they will be moving to here in our complex. This has been the most difficult, and nuttiest sale I have been involved with in my short real estate career. I will spare you the gory details but we made an offer on April 9th, and here we are, only six months plus later, finally closing.
It has made some things clearer for me that I have been thinking about for over a year now. I have one client that I am still working with, and once I find her a home, I will be getting out of the real estate business. This sale has worn me out and it is time for me to kick back with no responsibilities to the daily grind.
The above story has nothing to do with the rest of this column but I shared it with you as a frame of reference, I think. Maybe I just wanted to share. I'm not sure.
Last night, to celebrate, I watched Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time. Good movie, if slightly untrue in parts, but still a good movie. Spoiler alert. When Queen, and Freddie Mercury, got the Wembley crowd jumping, singing, and crying, it made me realize how much I wished I could feel what they were feeling at that moment.
I have always been gob smacked at the ability of an artist to do what they do. A painters ability to generate emotion from their work, or a sculptor being able to show incredible detail on the human form, makes my head spin with wonder. I can't even imagine how they can do what they do.
I am in awe of Linda's ability to create the things she creates with such ease, like these birds, above, she slammed out one week. How do you even begin to make something like this? Her ability to look at a picture, and recreate it from scratch, blows my mind. The detail of these is remarkable.
I have known for some time now that I have talent that I have greatly underused in my life. If you will allow me a bit of self congratulation, I think I am on my way to being a pretty good writer. I know that I am funny and can make people laugh.
I always had two things I wanted to do, write a book, and do stand up comedy. I have not written a book, but I have an idea for one that I am working to better outline. I have written a movie, with a lot of help from Tom Barnicle. It never made it to the silver screen, but we came way closer to that happening than two idiots from Chicago should have ever come.
I have never actually done stand up comedy, but I have had several chances to get up in front of a crowd, and entertain them for ten to twenty minutes. I can tell you it was exhilarating. I have been afraid to actually go to a club and perform, but not for the reason yo might think.
I'm not afraid of failing, I'm afraid of succeeding. What if I do as well as I think I could? Imagine the heartbreak of finding out you have a talent for something and did nothing with it until you were in the last chapter of your life.
Regrets, I have a few, but that would be crushing. Same goes with my writing. Imagine if I shared this blog with the world and they liked it and then realizing I wasted my entire life not writing. I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for that news.
I do know that I would love to hear people laugh and cheer for me while on stage, or say, and write wonderful things about my storytelling ability. Does this make me an egomaniac? Of course it does, do you not know me?
In a moment of self realization last night, it all became clear to me what I need to do with the rest of the time I have here on earth one. I am going to spend my time writing that book I promised myself, about fifty-five years ago, and I am going to find a way to perform at least one set of stand up.
I think I'm finally old enough to be able to handle the adulation, or derision, that will come with the effort. Watch this space for further details.
As you know, that's been on my bucket list for a long time