Where are the Answers?

My Star Exponent Article this week...

Charlie Brown once said, “In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.” Well Charlie, books kill trees, so you should probably jump on the “Think Green” train and buy a Nook … but you’re right.

Where can we find the answers to life?

I met with a few friends from high school for drinks and flashbacks this past week, but of course talk of degrees and jobs replaced the once innocent chatter of nonsense and breakups.

Although each of them has a degree awaiting an office frame, none have an office to put them in. None have the classroom they’ve spent four years dreaming of decorating, and none have booked weddings in the event planning journal they’ve prepared. In fact, none are doing anything remotely related to their degrees.

Now of course each of them is sure to find great success in their futures, but for now I admire their modest view on “living life” in their parent’s house on a seven dollar paycheck until Mr. Right Job comes along.

With a year left, I’ve nervously started writing my thank you letter to college.

So far I only have, “Dear College.”

But I figure I’ll continue with something like, “Thank you for the degree, the good times and the debt … I hate you.”

Post-college is scary! Where am I going to go? What am I going to do? How on earth am I going to pay for this air I’m breathing?

These unanswerable questions had me searching for a childhood classic more inspirational than Charlie Brown.

“Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too

Went for a ride in a flying shoe

Horay what fun, it’s time we flew

Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too”

Shel Silverstein had me wondering about the adventures I would take in a flying shoe.

I figured I would soar to the tops of the green trees and thank them for the fight they put up every spring even though winter and fall continually knock off their leaves.

I’ve always admired their resilience.

I would then tour the castles and the airplanes that the clouds build every day, regardless of the many that forget to notice their pictures.

I’ve always trusted their entertainment.

I would then land atop a red light, so that the two of us could admire the cars that want so badly to rush past us.

I’ve always been jealous of their patience.

So College Advice: Escaping reality and embracing creativity may be the simplest way to ignore life stresses. Unfortunately Silverstein’s poem ends rather dramatically,

“Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too

Never returned to the world they knew

And nobody knows what’s happened to

Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too”

But I like to think that life flew that shoe exactly where they were supposed to be. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest we lace our shoes and hold on tight.