A Few Thousand Shares of Apple

Have you ever spent time wondering if the path your life is on is indeed the right one? I suppose that we all have at one time or another. Well, not the very young of course or the very stupid. When I put it that way, I am probably talking about more than half of the population.

There are days when I look back at my life and wonder just how things would have turned out if I had done things a little differently. It isn’t even as if I made conscious decisions on what path to take, life for me has been a river that just flows along and tends to find the easiest way to go. Downhill. I think if I did have it to do over again I would take some of the more difficult paths. The difficult paths are the ones that you learn the most from. They are also the ones that can cause you the most pain and the greatest joy.

Who hasn’t wished to go back in time knowing what you know now? Sure, I would have bought gold at $35 dollars an ounce instead of hash at the same price. I would have bought into those early computer companies and I would have opened up a donut shop or a thousand. The truth is though, I would have sold the gold when it got to $50 dollars an ounce instead of waiting until it hit $1800. I probably would have bought the wrong start up computer company or sold it when my investment doubled. I am not one of those people that are comfortable taking chances with my money. I suppose I am destined to be comfortable and not filthy rich, although I wouldn’t mind taking a shot at it.

The things I would have done differently aren’t really about money, but more about me. I would have applied myself in school and après school. I would have learned to play an instrument just for the joy of the sound. I would have insisted on taking arts instead of letting my mom and dad bully me into a business course. I would have treated people nicer than I have. I wouldn’t have wasted so much time on people that don’t deserve to have time spent on them. I would have tried to be more friend with my parents than son. I would like to care less about some people and more for others.

I would have hung around the Old Firehall in the mid seventies with my comedy partner Ken R. I don’t think we would have achieved fame and fortune, but it would have been nice to be a witness to entertainment history.

I have been something of a story teller for most of my life and I wish I had begun writing seriously many, many years ago. I understand that it is never too late, but I am talking “what ifs” here. Oh the things I could have done if only…

The trouble with that kind of thinking is that any change in my earlier behaviour would have altered my present life and from my perspective it is pretty much perfect. I simply wouldn’t be me, I wouldn’t know my wife, I wouldn’t have my three wonderful children and there would be no Hurricane and no Tornado. I couldn’t bear that, and I would know!

I guess my life is the way it should be and the world for all of its faults is the world that I have created. The people in my life are the perfect people for me and I will continue to try and be the person they have come to know and love.

Having said how I love my life, I wouldn’t mind having a few thousand shares of Apple or a million or so in gold. Just sayin’…