Day 3 - 169 -- Living or surviving?

The main activity today involved a discussion of reviewer comments to a manuscript we'd submitted for publication. It often takes two minds to interpret statements and questions and provide a solid response in the form of revisions and rebuttal for areas that may have been misunderstood. It can be emotional when dealing with others trying to rewrite your precious words <smile> or trying to remake a study after the fact. I often have to sit with the comments for a few days to feel more comfortable and see that all but a smattering of shared ideas will provide a much stronger manuscript. I've chosen in classes to share some of the feedback I've received over the years along with how we responded -- how we revised a section or an explanation of why we didn't. The goal is to show students that comments they receive are not just being picky, but are meant to help strengthen their writing and presenting ideas as clearly as possible AND that we all go through this <smile>. The meeting with a co-author today really helped me to begin to visualize how my suggested edits to the paper would come into a cohesive whole -- one that is better than the first submission.

I heard somewhere recently (likely a TV show <grin>) a conversation about 'what if I'd only done something differently' providing the assumption that the world or life would be perfect now. The wise friend noted that this was the cost of living. By accepting the small and the very large parts of life that we sometimes feel we had the power to alter (we likely didn't), we can move through life with lesser baggage, fewer regrets and more peace. This doesn't mean the journey will be smooth sailing on calm waters, but it does mean that we can acknowledge the pain and find ways of living with it rather than spending all our time wishing we could have changed events -- so living life in all its glory rather than hiding from the realities and stagnating as an individual. Some had termed these two states living versus surviving. It comes to a choice. Once we make that choice, it is hard work to learn to accept, but it should be worthwhile. 

A great song that speaks to this as a wisdom of age was my choice to share here today. We often think of older people as the wise ones, but it can happen at any age, though perhaps the longer journey provides more insights as we age. The singer is an older person and sings about that, too. The audio isn't super from this live performance, but the lyrics are just too good not to share. Enjoy! 

P.S. the video shared here has the song end about 3-1/2 minutes in. The rest of the recording is the patter between songs and the intro to the next song. It does show the singer's sense of humour well.

Cost of Living -- Don Henley