Live The Perfect Day
Live The Perfect Life
Oh, that glorious time of year where here in Pennsylvania they pull one of the chosen whistle pigs out of his hole and he tells us when Spring will arrive. Millions of people flock to a small town about 1 and half hours north of Pittsburgh to marvel in Punxsutawney Phil's majestic presence. They will heed his words of caution this year as the prognosticator of prognosticators has seen his shadow. Winter will be with us another 6 weeks this year. The good new is, he is usually right about 20 percent of the time. Not to take away from the magic that is Groundhog's Day, but it does all seem a little silly.
But, what this tradition did bring about was one of the more profound and interesting movies that has been produced. "Groundhog Day" is a movie written by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin. Danny Rubin came up with the idea, Ramis rewrote it to make it viable as a movie. It stars Bill Murry who plays weatherman Phil Connors who tries desperately to escape Punxsutawney and get back to Pittsburgh despite an incoming snowstorm. As much as he tries to convince himself and everyone else that the storm is not coming, the universe has different plans for Phil Connors and eventually he get stuck in a loop that no one else is aware of. He starts living the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over.
Seeing that there are no consequences to his actions, Phil takes to drinking heavily, taking on women for the night, engaging in gluttony, and all of the other sins one might take up knowing there were no negative outcomes. Eventually he falls into depression and tries to off himself in multiple ways...only to wake up the next day in his bed to the alarm clock and the infamous Sonny and Cher tune "I Got You Babe"...."then put your little hand in mine"......
Eventually Phil gets himself together and sets out to live the perfect day. He falls in love with Rita (Andie MacDowell) and awakes on February 3rd thinking he should move with Rita to Punxsutawney, but they should rent first. Having spent many weekends in Punxsutawney, I will agree with that sentiment.
The premise to this movie is one that I love dearly. How many of us are wandering through life living the same day over and over? Wake up, go to work, maybe have some beers, go home, deal with the family, go to sleep, wake up, and the pattern continues. You can see how this would lead to depression. To break that, perhaps we should seek to live the perfect day everyday. It is not an easy task.
On thing that works for me is to schedule out my day. That is why you see my blog posts come out around the same time, why Your Morning Thought comes out on IG, Facebook, and Twitter at the same time...then this blog and medium. In my perfect day, these things get done. I also make it a point to talk to a few people once a day and others once a week to check on their life progress. I tell people what I feel about them when I feel like I should. I pray early and often.
I would invite you to think on this when you awake in the morning. "If I were to live today as the perfect day, what would I do?" I would also invite you to realize that sloth, gluttony, and whatever other feel good action you might think of did not work out so well for our friend Phil Connors. I doubt it would work out very well for you either. :) Other than that, enjoy life. It is indeed a gift.
As always, thank you for your time and attention.
Oh, that glorious time of year where here in Pennsylvania they pull one of the chosen whistle pigs out of his hole and he tells us when Spring will arrive. Millions of people flock to a small town about 1 and half hours north of Pittsburgh to marvel in Punxsutawney Phil's majestic presence. They will heed his words of caution this year as the prognosticator of prognosticators has seen his shadow. Winter will be with us another 6 weeks this year. The good new is, he is usually right about 20 percent of the time. Not to take away from the magic that is Groundhog's Day, but it does all seem a little silly.
But, what this tradition did bring about was one of the more profound and interesting movies that has been produced. "Groundhog Day" is a movie written by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin. Danny Rubin came up with the idea, Ramis rewrote it to make it viable as a movie. It stars Bill Murry who plays weatherman Phil Connors who tries desperately to escape Punxsutawney and get back to Pittsburgh despite an incoming snowstorm. As much as he tries to convince himself and everyone else that the storm is not coming, the universe has different plans for Phil Connors and eventually he get stuck in a loop that no one else is aware of. He starts living the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over.
Seeing that there are no consequences to his actions, Phil takes to drinking heavily, taking on women for the night, engaging in gluttony, and all of the other sins one might take up knowing there were no negative outcomes. Eventually he falls into depression and tries to off himself in multiple ways...only to wake up the next day in his bed to the alarm clock and the infamous Sonny and Cher tune "I Got You Babe"...."then put your little hand in mine"......
Eventually Phil gets himself together and sets out to live the perfect day. He falls in love with Rita (Andie MacDowell) and awakes on February 3rd thinking he should move with Rita to Punxsutawney, but they should rent first. Having spent many weekends in Punxsutawney, I will agree with that sentiment.
The premise to this movie is one that I love dearly. How many of us are wandering through life living the same day over and over? Wake up, go to work, maybe have some beers, go home, deal with the family, go to sleep, wake up, and the pattern continues. You can see how this would lead to depression. To break that, perhaps we should seek to live the perfect day everyday. It is not an easy task.
On thing that works for me is to schedule out my day. That is why you see my blog posts come out around the same time, why Your Morning Thought comes out on IG, Facebook, and Twitter at the same time...then this blog and medium. In my perfect day, these things get done. I also make it a point to talk to a few people once a day and others once a week to check on their life progress. I tell people what I feel about them when I feel like I should. I pray early and often.
I would invite you to think on this when you awake in the morning. "If I were to live today as the perfect day, what would I do?" I would also invite you to realize that sloth, gluttony, and whatever other feel good action you might think of did not work out so well for our friend Phil Connors. I doubt it would work out very well for you either. :) Other than that, enjoy life. It is indeed a gift.
As always, thank you for your time and attention.
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