Can You Choose the Genre of Your Life?

I met a guy the other day. Let’s call him Ben.

We got to talking and he told me a bit about himself:

He’s 23 years old. When he was 19, he started dating a girl, she was 17 at the time – a month into the relationship, her father found out and made them get married. After the wedding, the girl totally changed, she made Ben’s life hell, and after three years and a kid, they got divorced.

It’s been a year since the divorce. He wants to be an engineer, but that isn’t a realistic option for him right now. Instead, he’s stuck in a dead-end job.

His ex still has it out for him. He has a kid to take care of. Wonderful kid, but still. Ben’s in a pretty crummy situation. He’s just starting his life and he’s got all this baggage.

But you know the funny thing? You’d never know it by looking at him. And it’s even harder to believe after talking with him.

Source: Krzysztof Poltorak via fotocommunity

He’s happy. He’s at peace. Not in the least bit cynical. He still believes in the beauty of marriage, and would love to get married again one day.

Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday Afternoons

I really like (read: am obsessed with) a British show called Doctor Who. It’s sci-fi, it’s part of British pop culture, and it’s gaining quite a following in the U.S. It’s about a Time Lord called the Doctor who travels through time and space, usually with a companion.

I highly recommend the show – it’s funny, scary, dramatic, and everything in between.

However this post isn’t about Doctor Who. It’s about the small things in life. Okay, it’s a little bit about Doctor Who.

The following is an exchange between the Doctor and his companion, Amy (s5e2).

Doctor: Big day tomorrow.

Amy: Sorry, what?

Doctor: Well, it’s always a big day tomorrow – I’ve got a time machine; I skip the little ones.

And then in a later episode (s6e1) the Doctor says: There’s loads of boring stuff, like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons.

I beg to differ.