Dead Like Me

I really like the TV show Dead Like Me. It's a bit depressing I guess, because it deals with death (the main characters are grim reapers) and I don't particularly care for the language, but barring that, I do like the show. It's interesting, offbeat, definitely not your average show. It has a dry sense of humor that I find refreshing. I like George, the main character, I feel like I would be friends with her if she was a real person. Anyway, my sisters got me the DVD set for Christmas and every now and then I've been watching an episode. The one I saw today really got me thinking. Rube tells George that in the game of life, she's been a bowling pin, not a bowling ball. She just sits at the bottom of the lane, waiting to get knocked down. And he says, "I'll tell you what, it sure is better to be the ball." Later in the episode, George is contemplating that. Since the first episode (where she met her untimely death due to be smashed by a flaming toilet seat falling out of the sky from a Russian space center) she's been resentful of dying. Now, in this episode, she thinks back to her life and started questioning her behavior and her actions, like why she didn't do certain things. Basically she asks herself, "Why didn't I live when I was alive?"

And that really hit me. Oftentimes I curse the situations I may find myself in, but how much of it is my fault? My complacency, my fear of just getting up and DOING something? Why don't I try to live more fully, instead of just sitting back and letting life run me over? I feel more like I'm the poor sap at a dunk tank- I feel like so often, I just sit on the stoop, cringing, wondering when someone's going to hit the button and I'll get dunked. And instead of climbing out of the stupid tank when I am dunked, I just get right back on the stoop and do it all over again. And if I AM going to just stay on the stoop of the dunk tank, why don't I even have any fun with it? There's a lot of people who really make the best out of every situation life throws at them, good or bad. I basically just stay miserable no matter what.

Well, no more! I'm tired of not living, I'm tired of waiting around, worrying about what life may or may not hit me with next. I want to do something with my life and enjoy it! I don't want it to pass me by. When I'm on my deathbed, I don't want to look back on my life and wonder why I didn't live more. The time is now, and I'm going to take it. Like Betty says on the show... "Happy thoughts!"