Tortoise Or Hare?

[Gvac]

This is something that was brought up on today's XM show and coincidentally a topic I've been thinking about lately.

Ronnie asked if you'd rather live a brilliant, creative life while experiencing tremendous highs and lows or would you prefer being a nice, comfortable, middle of the road kinda guy or gal who lives a full life?

It's the "shooting star" argument, basically. These are the people that get immortalized in pop culture - James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, etc. People who exploded onto the scene, changed the world, usually experienced some sort of addictions and demons, and then died young.

If you asked me ten years ago, I would have answered that I wanted to be the shooting star, no doubt. Now, I definitely see the value in the "slow and steady wins the race" school of thought.

Unlike a lot of my friends, I'm incredibly comfortable with growing older and I've never been more confident or sure of myself in my life. I feel like I still have a ton of things to do before my time is done and I intend to try with all my might to do 'em.


What do you guys think? And do you think the answer changes with time and life experience like it did with me?

[ppanda]

I think you hit right on the head Gvac. It does change with time.
And this is just something Ive discovered this past week.
If you asked me last week I would have told you I would want to have been the shooting star. I felt my life has not improved any since my twenties and in fact I've felt its been steadily getting worse. Ive become the corporate whore that I despised in the early 90's.

But now I feel I have a purpose...I have a new goal in life to work towards which will result in a new carrer and an improved outlook on my life. Just like you I feel I still have alot to contribute.

[drjoek]

"Live Fast, Die Young"
CIRCLE JERKS
I don't wanna live
to be thirty-four
I don't wanna die
in a nuclear war

go on out
get some more
go on out
to the bar, the market or the liquor store

I don't wanna live
to be fourthy-three
I don't like
what i see going on around me

go on out
get some more
go on out
get fucked up and pass out on the floor
go on out
get some more
go on out
to your favorite liquor store
go on out
don't worry about it any more
go on out
get fucked up
i don't know what for

I don't wanna live
to be fifty-seven
I'm living in hell
is there a heaven?

live fast, die young!
live fast, die young!
live fast, die young!
live fast, die young!

[mikeyboy]

I'd say I'm in the tortoise category, and I think I've pretty much always been there.

[Fat_Sunny]

Why Does It Have To Be Either/Or?

One Can Be A Wild And Crazy Youth And Do Everything That These Guys Did....Except Die...And Then Go On To A Stable Career And Fulfilling Life And Middle Age And Old Age.

There Are Loads Of "Second Acts" In The USA. You Can Have It All!

[waltermitty]

I am a hare who has tried and tried to convert to tortise....

I've tried for work, family and women and I have dissapointed them all...

I had a reoccurring dream in my teen years that I would die at age 27... Two years of fast living to go I guess.....

[PapaBear]

I had a reoccurring dream in my teen years that I would die at age 27.
I had two. One had me going at 27, and the other had me getting hacked up by a serial killer at 100+. Guess I have 60 or more to go!

I've also been the hare/tortoise mutant combo.

[Fat_Sunny]

I am a hare who has tried and tried to convert to tortise....

I've tried for work, family and women and I have dissapointed them all...

I had a reoccurring dream in my teen years that I would die at age 27... Two years of fast living to go I guess.....

Fat Didn't Become A Tortoise Until He Was 40! Colonel Sanders Didn't Start KFC Until He Was 66! Fat's Momma Graduated From College When She Was 74!! Fat's Neighbor Kept Driving Until She Was 97 (She's 101 Now)!! It's Never too Late For A Mid-Course Correction!

[waltermitty]

Fat Didn't Become A Tortoise Until He Was 40! Colonel Sanders Didn't Start KFC Until He Was 66! Fat's Momma Graduated From College When She Was 74!! Fat's Neighbor Kept Driving Until She Was 97 (She's 101 Now)!! It's Never too Late For A Mid-Course Correction!

I understand this... and thanks for the advice! Every day that you get older, you get a day towards responsibility and maturity...and every day towards that is a day away from the angst (for lack of a better word) that made me a hare...

I'm sure i'll still be a tortise eventually..............eventually...

[A.J.]

It's in the terrorists' hands now.

[cupcakelove]

I think its best to just live your life the way you want to and get the most out of it. If that makes you famous and die young, then at last you lived doing what you want. I agree with Ron that you don't want to live a super cautious life, and get to 80 missing out on a lot of life's experiences. I say live like a tortoise, but don't be scared to let the hare out once in a while. I try to get the hare out every weekend.

[ralphbxny]

At 23 I was Hare...now at 33 Tortoise!!

[Bob Impact]

I leave nothing behind.

[ScottFromGA]

My hare days started when I was about 12.....yes, I had the type of parents that were "logical thinkers" and used the old "we cant stop him from doing it, so lets let him do it in front of us" attitude. I was a drunk with my brother and his crowd until they got to old to party and then I got my own crowd. Basically, I was a drunk till I was 20....the day I turned 21...it stopped....it wasn't fun anymore.

so since then, I've been slow moving, more like a snail though. After seeing my mother go through her years of cancer, I realized that I have to take better care of myself....slow down...and be here for when MY baby gets to be my age. I'm 24 and I have no mother cause of the life she led before having kids.....really makes ya think about the things you do or did at a younger age and what the consequences will be to doing those things.

[JPMNICK]

I think i have always been a tortise, even from teenage years. i never had the dream to be a baseball player or a rockstar, just wanted to live a normal regular life.

[burrben]

i'm just about to give up my dreams and i'm okay with that. i just wanna live off the radar in quiet town, usa

[Furtherman]

Hey, living on in icon status is great, except for one thing: You're dead. You'll never even know about it. No point in that.

http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/titlecards/tortwins.jpg

[cougarjake13]

i never want to die

so i def would like to string things out as long as i can


theres just so many great places to go that i havent been to yet

and we have to work like dogs all year and maybe get a week or 2 of vacation

not enough i say