No Sense in Going Back

Dearest Rachel –

Last night’s dreams were mostly scattered fragments, with very little to them to allow me to remember and relate to you, even these few minutes after waking up. The couple of bits I do remember seem hardly worth telling you about either, except that by that very nature, they form a minor thesis that we all (well, okay… most of us) have to face at one point or another in our lives. Let me describe them, and see if you can figure out what that thing is.

The first involved my finding a few slips of paper in my car while I was cleaning it out, for whatever reason. These papers turned out to be notifications from the bank my former employer used, notifying us of adjustments to certain deposits due to foreign exchange rates. Quick summary; when a Canadian customer paid us, say, a thousand dollars, it would be deposited in the account as a thousand dollars. After a few days, the bank would seemingly realize “hey, these are Canadian dollars,” knock the amount down accordingly, and send us these slips to notify us of the change, so we could record it. Why any of them were in my car is a mystery; chalk it up to dream logic. Also, in a bit of dream logic, I briefly considered bringing them back to my old workplace, before concluding that, if they hadn’t made any adjustments to reflect a change that took place at least three and a half years ago, there was probably not point in doing so – and at any rate, I really didn’t want to show up there, for any reason.

The second image was that of the stinger at the end of the Animaniacs cartoon show. You know the bit; the Warner logo on the water tower opens after the credits, and the Warner brothers (and/or their sister Dot) will say a little something witty to close out the show. Oddly enough, they never did this in the revival series that you may have heard announced before your accident – actually, they left out a lot of things in the new run, and added a few rather unnecessary ones, to boot (which is kind of the point). This particular stinger wasn’t exactly funny; in fact, that was kind of the point. It was clearly the last one of the entire series, with the three siblings taking a reverential (for them) bow, in thanks to all their fans for watching, before Yakko blew one final kiss to the audience at large: “Good night, everybody!”

So, d’ya have any idea how I connected those little snippets?

Maybe I need to throw in another thing that I was actually listening to the other day. I’ve been getting into this or that podcast nowadays when I’m driving distances longer than just to church or the ‘office.’ Admittedly, not the podcast our pastors do about reading through the Bible, as I already have a regimen for that. Anyway, these guys are columnists on a news website, but also stand-up comics in what passes for them as real life. The topic was on a certain footballer who had won multiple championships in his career, but couldn’t seem to bring himself to retire despite (or maybe because of) that. In the process, he’d wrecked his marriage to a supermodel (who, despite his own successes, still made nearly twice what he did, so maybe she made him feel inadequate? At least he wouldn’t have to worry about paying alimony, maybe) and lost his family. Worst of all, his team barely made it to the playoffs (with the worst record of any team he’d ever played on; under .500, even), and promptly got beaten in the wild card round.

These two comics both acknowledged that, whenever they got a really huge laugh before they were technically finished with their set, they would often simply wrap things up early, and get off the stage with that big laugh. They admitted there was always the temptation to stay onstage and try to top the reaction they’d just gotten, but after so many years of experience, they’d come to the realization that doing so would likely spoil it, leaving them merely treading water until the end of the set as originally planned. Then, when they finally walk do off, it comes as a relief to the audience, rather than leaving them wanting more.

Likewise, my dreams of the revival of this old show we liked as a young family – as well as my own experience at work – felt like a reminder that there’s no sense in going back sometimes. You have to know sometimes when you’ve peaked, when you’re finished, and when to walk away and not come back. Best to leave everyone with those happier memories, rather than stay past your ‘sell-by’ date – or worse, to try to return as if you’re as good as you were once upon a time… because, more often than not, you’re not.

That’s a lot to take from a couple of momentary dream fragments, wouldn’t you say?

Anyway, you continue to live the dream yourself, honey; keep an eye on me down here, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.