Into the Hornet's Nest with 'Alphabet'

I think a big part of why we're all so upset about being 25 and not knowing what to do is because there seem to be other people who have it all figured out, are happy all the time, and don't worry about this stuff. Mostly, these people are older. That should be enough to arrest us out of angst but it's not so we'll press on. New York could be a hornets nest, obviously. Or life after College. Or a band. Really, anything interesting and dangerous is a hornets nest. And that's everything worth doing. Is it strange that sometimes I envy Elphaba (the dog)?

My friend Evan says that I, like most people, am afraid of change. He's right, and not in a bad way or anything. Once you set up systems for yourself that you can fall back on - a job, a relationship, an apartment, roommates - abandoning those systems leave you open to all sorts of trouble. And lets get something clear: a well taken care of dog is an obvlivious rich kid. Take all the risks you want and someone will clean the skunk off of you. So how do you stick your muzzle into the nest unafraid of getting stung to shit?

Le'ts all do that thing where we sniff really quickly inoutinoutinout and then let out a big HHhhhhhnnnnnnn! and resume the inoutinoutinout. Cause that's how dogs start. I'll abstain from making a list of my findings (the things I'm happy and sad about in my life). Besides, this list is unimportant, irrelevant. It's not the specifics of the hornets nest, it's the fearless, happy attitude about exploration. Elphaba is constantly in a state of play. Everything is playtime. And why wouldn't it be? Eating, sleeping, running, jumping, sleeping, tug-of-war, fetch, car rides and sleeping are all so much fun!

So we've got two things to focus on that I bet will make life at 25 a whole lot easier:

1) You have to be fearless when it comes to change. New car? New job? New city? Great. Take a walk, smell someone else's ass, and go to sleep. It'll be a blast.

2) You have to balance the weight of detractors with the weight of reinforcements. For example, if you're going to be upset about going to work five mornings a week looking for a new job, then you have to be equally happy about sleeping in and watching a football game (or movie or hiking or Civil War reenactments) with your buddies on the weekend. In other words, if you're owner makes you hunt with him all day, make sure you catch a pleasant nap on the living room floor that night.

That's really it, as far I can tell right now. Besides, those two are pretty hard without having anything else to do. Happy and fearless. Happy about the good things and fearless about changing the bad things.