More and the MoJo is missing

The world was my oyster. I was full of energy. I didn’t have excessive responsibilities. My mojo cup was filling up. 

How’s my cup looking now? I am older, promoted at work, and survived three major lawsuits, and I feel the effects of mojo depletion. I am overweight, tired, milky, and my days are cut way too short of free time. I looked like a plump squirrel, and I felt that life, as I had known it, disappeared with my 38-inch waist. My mojo was no mo’. I recently had my 9th known person commit suicide this year alone. WOW, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! 

The word “mojo” derives from an African language and relates to magic and spells to generate luck and power. In today’s language, the word still refers to a source of vigor, energy, sexual potency, and power. An entire Austin Powers movie was devoted to his lost mojo and his desperate search to find it. He ultimately discovers his mojo is within and has had access to it all along. Groovy baby! I feel depleted, overwhelmed, stressed out, frumpy, tired, bored, or lethargic, which means I have lost my mojo. 

It is tough to find the motivation to reclaim a lost mojo. But I can’t remain in this mojo-less place for too long, or my lost mojo might mushroom into a full-blown depression. I know that making small life changes can release the magic of mojo so that I can feel more energy and enthusiasm about myself and all that this beautiful world has to offer. Here are some things I know I need to do, but I keep delaying!

I need to address Stress. I feel overwhelmed and stressed, and I need to lighten the load and address the source of the Stress before I do anything else. The way it is, I have chest discomfort and difficulty breathing several times a day. Family or friends make too many demands on my time; I need to pinpoint the reason and take action. I know very few things in life are worth the physical and emotional toll of chronic Stress, yet it has been going on for a full year now! 

I need to remember “What Fun Is”. Fun is way underrated but an essential element of a strong mojo. As I write this, I have a pen and paper and try to jot down the times I had fun. I am going blank. That is sad! 

I need to get Physical and take An Electronic Sabbatical. It’s so easy to plop in front of the television or computer when I am feeling low on mojo. Once I am in that chair, it is so hard to get back up. I need to read something inspirational or motivating. No more sitting and zoning out. 

Overall, my mojo is late, and I should immediately start. I must take action to get my groove back, but after a few months, I am still feeling lethargic, tired, or in the dumps. I am contemplating seeing a doctor. There are various physical and emotional reasons for losing the mojo, and it might be something as simple as low iron or poor sleeping habits.

In the end, I need to take action and reclaim my magic.

Carry on, my Friends, Carry On!

#6... Hope the count stops soon!

I can't believe it!  Robin Williams, the happiest and funniest man of my childhood, someone I admired and enjoyed watching in all his work, supposedly found it easier not to grow old.  Why?  Just like my previous post, we will never know.

Then, I see the other side of the spectrum.  When riding my bicycle to work, I often see an elderly man walking.  He must be in his 90's.  He walks at what I consider a quick pace for his age, but he moves about 3 inches a step.  He looks happy each time I go past him in the early morning. That is all he has left to feel good about, and he enjoys the walk. 

I get more confused.

I also noted another generational issue recently.  My generation would take pride in being aware of other people's time.  I notice now that people in their 20s just live the moment more and more without regard to what was planned or what is tomorrow.  It seems odd that they do not have any issues making others wait and cancel plans as they are enjoying their moment in time.  Just seems so selfish.  But it could be I am just becoming that grumpy old man no one enjoys. There is little respect left in the world.

There's been a fundamental change in adult life. Teachers, pediatricians, and therapists are seeing children of all ages who are not afraid of their parents—not one bit—not of their power, not of their position, not of their ability to apply standards and enforce consequences.

These days, that look seems to have been replaced by a feeble nod of parental acquiescence and an earnest acknowledgment of "how hard it is to be a kid these days." I have seen children call their parents names and tell them how stupid they are, and I have heard adolescents use strings of expletives toward them. 

I have concluded that not only are the kids unafraid of their parents, but parents are also afraid of their kids! Whatever happened to the phrases our parents relied on to put us in our place? "Keep your shirt on." "On the double." "What do you think we are, made of money?" "Because I said so." "If you want sympathy, look it up in the dictionary," or  "Don't bother me unless you're bleeding." Parents once commanded respect.

Today's generation of children is our history's most closely observed, monitored, cherished, and scheduled. They are also the most praised. Families are smaller, and there are fewer children upon whom parents can beam their attention.  Many parents don't expect their children to contribute much around the house, but they expect them to achieve outside the home.

Could it be that this is the answer I am looking for? We never get to be kids, so we do not want to become older adults? Could it be that someone stole their childhood, so they stole their adulthood?

Carry OnMy Friends, Carry On…  

I don't understand!

In the past six months, I know of five men over 50 (two I knew well) who passed away.  All were suspected to have committed suicide.  It is even more alarming when they all had great jobs, successful children, and did not seem to have much in life to be concerned about.  Yet they decided that they had enough.  We will never know what enough entails.  I tried searching for an explanation but only became more confused.

Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in over 30,000 deaths per year recorded. This is clearly an underestimate of the true figure since many suicides are not recorded as such because of social stigma, financial considerations, and other factors. For as long as statistics about suicide have been collected in the United States, there has been a very consistently strong association between suicide and 3 factors: age, gender, and race. Though women have many more suicide attempts than men, per attempt, a man is 4 times more likely to die than a woman.  What is even more alarming is white males accounted for 73% of all suicides in the US in 1996.  Overall, the United States suicide rate is overwhelmingly white, male, and older than age of 50.

There is a well-established strong association between depression and suicide. So I wonder, should I have seen the signs?  I noted amongst them all that they worked hard, and work was their life.  They may have lost touch with reality and become depressed; I just do not understand.  I only wish I could have seen this coming and intervened.

I had a wrong thought. Those who followed the rules and did well seemed in the worst emotional shape. These folks believed that if they always did the right thing, the responsible thing, nothing bad would ever happen to them.

I wonder if someone like me, who's weathered economic extremes for decades, weathered a divorce, had major issues with most imaginable situations, and had great friends die when I was in my teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, and now 50s, had any advantage.  I wonder if I am better emotionally prepared for the arbitrary turns of life's wheel. I already know how to be poor and get by, to be alone and survive, to have a child despise you and live, to see death and live.  Most of my friends didn't.

So why are baby boomers somehow inherently suicidal? They're just so self-centered and childish; of course, they throw the ultimate tantrum when they can't get their own way?  Or not. Maybe they're just human beings whose lives have been ruined by the lawless actions of the Wall Street elite, enabled by the austerity fever dreams of the media elite.  Politicians are worried about gun control and birth control rather than providing proper mental health training.  I may be so far off, but after the fifth assumed suicide, and that being a close friend, I just look for answers, and that may be an impossible quest for answers.

Carry on, my friends...  Carry on...