stevesbets

As a blogger, I feel it is necessary to sometimes not just write my random opinions on things, but occasionally pop onto the proverbial pulpit and preach some powerful words of wisdom to the Betsies (a term coined in a previous blog for readers of my blog). It is with that in mind that I write the following blog.

As a poker player, I frequently am up late playing in games when it seems the rest of the world is asleep. I get bored and as a result have watched quite a few on demand movies recently. One such movie was the Adam Sandler movie from a few years ago called Click. This blog will contain spoilers so if you haven’t seen it and like to go in fresh, you should probably stop reading now.

Click is about a happy successful man with a loving, beautiful wife (played by Kate Beckinsale) and family. He doenst have much of an appreciate for what he has and he stumbles upon a universal remote that can control the world around him. He can pause everything, rewind to redo life, or as he finds is very useful, fast forward through moments that he just does not wish to live. When he chooses to fast forward, his body is still in place for all those around him to see, but it goes into standby mode pretty much where he has no personality at all (since his personality is fast forwarding through that time). This seems like a dream come true for Sandler, and probably most of the Betsies reading. He doesn’t count on the remote having a memory, much like TIVO, it can learn your preferences and apply them. Unlike TIVO, once it learns your preferences you cannot cancel them!

Sandler fast forwarded through boring little things like family dinners and lying in bed talking to his wife, and some bigger things like dealing with the stress of a job until he got his much awaited promotion. The remote quickly starts fast forwarding him through all the special moments with his family, and all the time in bed with his wife. Before he knows it, 10 years have been FFed, he’s overweight, divorced and fairly miserable (but very successful since he always put work first).

For the purposes of the blog the rest of the movie is kind of irrelevant, but I took a meaningful lesson from this movie. During the mundane, uncomfortable, and just downright annoying moments, life happens. My parents always told me not to wish my life away, and I am coming to realize that this is especially true for the moments you don’t want to skip.  “Gold” can be struck at any time and without much warning and you want to have your eyes wide open when it does. As poker players, there are times we all want to fast forward through, but will constantly remind myself to be aware, awake and present in the present.