Life is a rollercoaster – and some days I just want to get off!

Could someone please explain to me why some days are absolute bliss while others are like a rollercoaster that I just can’t get off? Sometimes they are a combination of both. Our family can go from a scene out of Everybody loves Raymond to 7th Heaven in five seconds flat.

Admittedly, there are days when I know I am the one responsible. I bought the tickets and willingly got on the ride. I take on too much and it all goes pear shaped. Other days I am the unwilling rider, pushed on by peer pressure and ‘scaredy cat’ taunts where I feel like I have to be ‘super mum’ and it’s all beyond my control. Never mind about ‘Mother guilt’. This is a whole different kettle of fish.

Upon pondering this theory of the rollercoaster of life, I have examined others’ take on it. Movies, books, poetry, songs, blogs and art give us many narratives on life. Here is a selection of my findings:

John Lennon, in Beautiful Boy, sang ‘Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans’.

Tom Cochrane sang “Life is a highway“.

In the movie Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks says, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’.

In the Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Universe, we find out that the meaning of life =42

Monty Python based a series of skits around The Meaning of Life.

The poet Langston Hughes wrote a poem titled, ‘Life is Fine’ and Sir WalterRaleigh wrote ‘Life’.

Ronan Keating sang ‘Life is a rollercoaster‘.

Ani Difranco is quoted as saying ‘ Life is a B movie: it’s stupid and it’s strange, it’s a directionless story, the dialogue is lame,but in the ‘he said she said’ sometimes’s there’s some poetry, if you can turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally’.

‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while,you could miss it’  – fromFerris Bueller’s Day Off.

‘Life is beautiful’ by Sixx:AM

‘Life is like a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can’ –  Unknown.

‘The secret of life is in art’ – Oscar Wilde.

‘Life is just one damned thing after another’ – Unknown.

‘An unexamined life is not worth living’ – Socrates.

Watch the movie ‘My life as a dog‘ directed by Lasse Hallstrom.

Jack Hardy said, ‘I hope life isn’t a big joke –  because I don’t get it’.

Last but not least is my favourite:

‘We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we just join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love’. Dr Suess.

From all this I decided the following formula for life and what to do when some days are rollercoasters:

• Don’t make plans
• Go on a road trip
• Eat chocolate
• Life begins at 42
• Watch Monty Python because then all else seems sane
• Read and write poetry as therapy
• Don’t listen to Ronan Keating, he has no clue
• Turn your back and watch B movies
• When days are bliss – stop and look, if not – keep going…fast!
• Get up at 6am then life will be beautiful
• Throw paint as therapy
• Enjoy art in all it’s forms because Oscar Wilde cannot be wrong and does not keep secrets
• Don’t swear – it makes you bitter and unmemorable
• Don’t undervalue a good examination of philosophy
• Get a dog, play with a dog, be a dog
• Make jokes to hide the fact you don’t have a clue, at least life is funny then
• Read Dr Seuss. That guy had a clue.

For those of you that are visual learners I have included the following:

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• If Life is a Rollercoaster then BPD is a Pinball Machine! (showard76.wordpress.com)
• Want To Get Off The Rollercoaster? (nfaa.wordpress.com)