Vinny and Don



Don Draper reflecting over an Old Fashioned



Sunday nights are my oasis. If I had a horrible week (and I did) or if I had a great week (and I did not) I can count on Sundays letting me escape into another place. My two favorite shows are on Sundays. The first is Entourage and the other show is Mad Men. Both have great writing, but completely different textures of it. Tonight's Mad Men was so good I watched it twice. Entourage's season finale was more of a melt down. There are similarities between Vinny Chase and Don Draper though, they always get the women! They may screw it up with them, they may self destruct, but they do pull themselves together. Don is certainly more of the loner, the introspective type that can seem to live in a melancholy state of mind. Yet he makes that state look so cool. While Vinny just enjoys the ride and it doesn't seem like depth is his strongest attribute.

Something about the tone and the writing just makes Mad Men linger longer in my head. While Entourage is a kick, I don't think about it long afterwards. While episodes and scenes of Mad Men can stick with me days and weeks later. Maybe it is because I can relate to the challenges and the growth that Don goes through. His line tonight about "wanting more but once you get it longing for what you had" is priceless to me and probably rings true to most everyone. It seems every episode this season has resonated to me somehow. This one made me want to get back to the gym and start swimming again. It was a quiet and optimistic episode tonight and a message I definitely needed. Life is complex and while we may seem to feel like we are on top of the world or we've hit our stride life has a way of changing. We can be on the bottom just as quickly as we were on the top. It's how we respond and treat ourselves and others around us that determines where we will stay.

I'm in a transition again. The next few days will determine a lot in the direction of my life. It is an interesting time. The events that unfolded last week have redirected me again. This whole year has been a year of growth and redirection. Do I make different decisions in my life? Do I listen to the lessons? Or do I fall back into my old routine? There is no easy road anymore. Not sure if there ever was, but I know now that I can't expect to coast to get what I want. I have to throw myself out there, throw my passion out there. If it fails, and I'm not good enough at least I cannot fault myself the try. I can only commit to going full force and not accepting anything less than that.

Peaks and valleys is the world we live in. There are mountains we scale and canyons we fall into. There are oceans we can sail and lakes we can only swim. Sometimes our car runs out of gas while we are in the middle of nowhere. Other times we ride in a bus full of all of our family and friends and the music never seems to end. We can't control everything that turns up, good, bad, tragic, heartbreaking. We can control how long we stay there. I don't want to forget. All of this is meaningful. All of this has purpose.