TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Never Stop Living The Dream

ADVERTISEMENT

By Norm Cukras | Highlands Today

Published: October 6, 2007

I was watching a memorial TV show honoring diva Beverly Sills. During a taped interview she said something similar to the fact that she was less disturbed thinking: I shouldn't have done that rather than I should have done that. I know that we all have done something in our lifetimes that we regret; things that we feel we shouldn't have done. But for most of us it's been some minor infraction. A venial sin not a mortal one as it were.

However it always seems that our "should haves" outnumber our "shouldn't haves." At least mine do. There are so many things I regret not having done. When I was in elementary school I would look at my geography book and try to imagine what it was like in some of those exotic places pictured between its covers. I couldn't help but remember those childhood fantasies when I eventually lounged in a gondola for a ride around the canals of Venice and when I sat on the back of a camel as it lumbered through the shadows of the great pyramids. Still, regardless of our successes we can't help but ponder about what could have been.

I never made it to, as the golden oldie song offers, "Those far away places with strange sounding names." Places like Timbuktu or Katmandu. And while I might have sat on the ruins of Stonehenge and walked the back alleys of Pompeii, I still lament over not having walked through the long abandoned streets of Machu Picchu.

Sills also said, "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." Her observation could well be our challenge. Set your goals high. But when you do be sure they are attainable.

I once met the president of a rather large manufacturing company at a house party. He told me that when he retired in a few years he was going to fill out his goal of visiting every member country of the United Nations. Today there are 192. Back then there was less because it was before the breakup of the USSR, which added 10 additional countries. Anyway he had already been to about 125 countries so his goal, however ambitious, was attainable.

For me, the same goal would be a bit out of reach.

So I'll continue to dream about those faraway places and be content to explore the back roads of Florida. While I was born a northerner, I now consider myself a southerner, and this edited baker's dozen list lifted from the Internet and sent to me by a reader is my reminder of that:

You're A Floridian If
You feel a good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade,
You consider anything under 70 as chilly,
You've actually driven through Yeehaw Junction,
You keep track of the lovebug seasons on your calendar,
You avoid fire ant mounds,
You know what snowbird season means,
You drink sweet tea with any meal,
You were 12 before you ever saw snow and you don't remember how cold it really is,
You think a six-foot alligator isn't all that big,
You call any hill 100 feet above sea level a mountain,
You've worn shorts and used the A/C while singing Christmas carols,
You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee, Chassahowitzka, and Withlacoochee,
You know the four seasons are classified as: almost summer, summer, not summer but still really hot, and February.

Overheard

Overheard at the checkout counter: Is it just me, or do others think that northerners talk funny?

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT