Joi de Vivre

9/11/2018

The champagne flowed.

Late night parties, a beautiful woman always on his arm.

Money flowed too.

Friends, trips to the country and places exotic.

Tennis, chess, sailing quixotic.

His days were full. Life was good.

One day he woke up realizing what should have been obvious.

He was an unsuccessful gambler whose popularity was pegged to his diminishing trust fund.

He stopped gambling, drinking and womanizing. His life was empty.

He was too old to get an entry level job. His meager skills were pathetically dated. He flirted now not with femme fatales but with an empty life and his own mortality which he hoped was still a few decades away. Still time to do something. But what? Patience. But patience of the right sort. A man of his word, there was no going back to alcohol or gambling or other petty quasi addictions to dull the pain of boredom and self-hatred.

He realized he had a strength: when he committed to something he would go as far with it as he could. He would not let himself get in his own way- this time. If that meant he needed a coach or teacher he would find that person. He was ready to learn. 

He did not need more happiness.

He needed to learn to work.

Would meditation help?

First he decided to clean his house.

It became obvious. The next step was to get into better physical shape. Then train and sharpen his mind.

He was always afraid of cookbooks and other instructions. Though not unintelligent he had been so speedy, he never learned well.

Something was different this time. It was the reality of his dwindling bank account.