rules of engagement # 8

Distraction.

"remembering you set out to drain the swamp is hard when you're up to your ass in alligators."

David Mamet said that, and quite frankly, over the years, this quote has helped to regain perspective when stuck waist deep in insignificant details. it's so easy to fall into the trap of becoming so busy and so focused on the minute to minute, the hour to hour, the day to day, that i often lose sight of what it is i set out to do in the first place; the long term objective.

look people, engagement sucks! and when i say it, i mean it. i don't ever want to go through this hell hole again, and in our specific circumstances being so far away, the alligators might as well be huge meat-eating dinosaurs. this is not easy. every time i write one of these entries, i feel like yet another chunk of flesh has been consumed by this whole engagement process, and i don't have many chunks left.


don't get me wrong, i want more than anything to marry naomi, and if i be so blessed to live that long, everything will have been well worth it. but engagement is bloody. it destroys towns and villages in its wake. it's war every second of every day. it definitely requires everything that you've got in order to just to survive it.

but i guess that is the goal: survive the engagement remembering that the life we start together is what this whole process is about. and marriage doesn't mean that the war is over, but it does mean that you now have an ally to help flank the enemy.


it's kind of like going to the movies: one can stand in line to buy tickets while the other buys popcorn; twice as much accomplished, half the time in line (if you have never experienced the positive results of employing this strategy then go read: THE LOGISTICAL ADVANTAGES OF DATING by U. R. N. Needofhelp).