How many times have you gone food shopping in your life? How many times have you gotten a haircut? How many times have you opened and closed the refrigerator, or walked up and down a flight of stairs? There are two men riding the same train, sitting across from each other. They’ve traveled on the same train, independently of each other, for the past five years. They were both going to their respective jobs then, and are still going to their respective jobs now. One of them wallows in the filth of an unhappy mind, cursing his boss and cursing his job and cursing this train and cursing the conductor. The other man writes a poem about a poster which hangs nearby, advertising a movie which has long since flopped with actors which have long since struggled with drug addiction and divorce. He’s been looking at the poster for the last five years, and has come to know it so well that he writes about it as if it were an old friend. The times they had, the moments they’ve shared. Some day that poster will be gone. It will finally slip out of its frame and give some poor kid a paper-cut. Both men see the same poster every day, but which of the two men will even notice that it is gone?
The first step towards being able to remember a good life is being able to appreciate it while it happens. Don’t let ordinary happen to you.

Cory Merchant