Expectations

As I get older I find that expectations really control so much of the way that we view the world.  A good movie may leave a bad taste in our mouths if we had been told for weeks that it was going to be "the greatest experience of our lives" and we only found it to be "enjoyable".  What could have been a great day may seem barely manageable if we were expecting a horrible experience.  A coke may taste absolutely amazing if we thought we were taking a sip of sam's cola.  

I think it would be amazing to be able to go through an entire day with no pre-conceived notion of how things were going to affect us.  Of course, this is against our nature as human beings.  It protects us from all sorts of dangerous elements in our world- burning our hand on the stove, drinking a bucket of used mop water, and even attempting to stick our tongues to frozen lamp posts.  

We learn what to expect of things as we grow.  It helps us to handle the world in so many different ways.  It clouds the way that we see the world.  It helps us to communicate with people.   It hurts our ability to communicate with others.  While open minds are what we often strive for we seem to be designed against having them.

It gets interesting when starting new adventures in life...  I know that I am often very afraid that things will not work out because other things have not worked out in the past.  I get worried, pass judgement too soon, and even fail to let myself live in the new moment that is being presented to me.  

I don't know what tv theme song to end this though with so I will leave you with several:

you take the good, you take the bad,

you take it all and then you have

the facts of life

don't you wanna go- where everybody knows your name

and they're always glad you came?

a three hour tour...

what would you do, if I sang out of tune?