time keeps on slipping slipping....

into the future. name that tune. even if you don't know it you can probably hum the tune and you know those words and all too well that time, despite out best attempts, keeps on slipping into the future. somehow 2 weeks has just blown by. from letting out a huge scream of joy as i flew down the face of a great run in Whistler with some great friends, to nervously giving the best man speech at my good friends wedding. I feel like these past 2 weeks I accumulated so many experiences and smiles that it is somehow ok to be back at school, reading theory and dreaming over the next moments of escape. I also realized why the time went to quick, I was too busy living that I wasn't doing much thinking. And I need those moments, I think we all do for our mental sanity. Those "flow" moments where you are not aware of before or after but without knowing it you are simply immersed in now, with only the big grin on your face to show for it. Those moments where we are in it, living it, and sucking every last drop out of this gift of life are those moments we look back on with fondness. For some crazy reason it seems lots of us are hell bent on accumulating money. Money has become the thing that defines a person, the thing which we always want more, at the expense our our hopes, our dreams and sometimes even our morals. But what about experience? Why do we need to measure a person by the size of the bank account but the total of dollar bills accumulated? What about an experience account? What about heading out there and accumulating moments of joy, happiness and ecstasy? Instead of envying someones new ride, there new clothes or there high paying job why not ask them when was the last time you let out a scream of joy, had a laugh with old friends, had a smile on your face so big that it hurt the next day, felt stoked to be alive? Jobs and money are obviously vital to accumulating experience but money may not be the be all and end all. I guess that might be the anthropologist in me. I am curious what makes people get up every day? What makes all of the other crap worthwhile? What are those things that get people inspired? What brings a smile of excitement to peoples faces? I am curious about all of this and I want to know how people achieve it in their own unique ways. There is no one way to happiness, despite what the self help section at Borders may lead you to believe. Somehow happiness has become a business where to find out how to be happy you need to work a lot to afford to buy all the books on happiness. I think its bullshit. Now I will admit I have read these books and even enjoyed some of them. But I think that the real secret lies in our greatest resource...other people. Try it and I think you may seem that there are may ways to live a life. The next time you meet some one in the street or catch up with an old friend, ask them: When was the last time you felt really alive? What do you love to do? What makes you get out bed every day in the face of seemingly endless obstacles, confusion and work? What moments when remembered put a smile on your face? And after a few of these questions you'll see it, as the person talks about those experience suddenly something will ignite a memory and that spark, that smile will appear on their face. So head out put those dollars to work and accumulate some of those other things..experience, fun, and memories that make you laugh so hard it hurts.