Modern Dreams, Treadmills, and Norman Rockwell

So there I was yesterday turning over calendar to a new month and what was there? A painting that hit me very hard. It accurately depicted what I was feeling at the time and what has been rolling around in my head since last Friday night.

It is a Norman Rockwell painting called Boyhood Dreams. Now anyone who knows me knows I love Norman Rockwell's work. It is Americana and timeless.

It features a young farm boy who is sitting on a rail fence that surrounds a garden in which he was working the ground with a hoe. His dog is at his side. They are watching a train go by in the distance. Since it is a painting you are left to ponder what he is thinking about.

For me he is thinking about all of the great things he can do if he wasn’t doing what he was doing. Running away and living an exciting life. He has experienced farm life and yearns for more and different experiences. He longs to see what the world has to offer him. He craves something different, something exciting, and yet there he is, stuck where he is while he feels life is passing him by. He feels like he is missing out on so many things.

The fact that the train is so far away from where he is seated symbolizes, to me, how far he feels he is away from what he would like to experience. The train is moving away from him, as if leaving him stuck where he is at.

This painting really speaks to me, especially lately. I’m starting to wonder exactly how much of a treadmill I’m on. I’m starting to wonder if it is possible to get off of the treadmill. I’m starting to wonder even if it was possible and I could jump off the treadmill, then what? I’m starting to think I’d like to experience much more than what I am currently.

What is out there to experience? What is new under the Sun, so to speak?

Alright say that you are Bill Gates or at least you have his resources. Nothing is impossible to you. If you wanted to buy every team in the NFL, it was all yours with millions to spare. What is there for you to do then? Say you love traveling! Alright, how long would it take you to see every single nook and cranny in the world? Five years tops? Yeah, probably. Then what do you do. What is left to experience then? What exactly do you have to look forward to at that point after you have become Charles Foster Kane at Xanadu.

Do you become unhappy after you have experienced everything and realize there is nothing left OR are you internally unhappy to start which causes you to start looking for new experiences to dull the empty ache you feel inside? Nearly a chicken or the egg problem huh?

Chianti and I were sort of mulling this over last Friday night. We started talking about how much Oprah makes per year and how it is hard to fathom having that kind of money and what to do with it all. It was just polite drinking conversation but the topic stuck with me until seeing the painting today on the calendar. It kind of made me put one and one together and jump started the idea process.

I’m one step ahead of the game in that regard. I know what my passion is. I’m pretty clear on that. I’ve had a tremendous creative streak lately so that is pretty cool as well.

All of that tells me that if I'm on a treadmill it is slowing down if not stopping. If it is stopping then it is possible to get off and if that is possible then anything is possible!!!!

Thanks to Norman Rockwell, Chianti, and a metaphor of a treadmill my dreams are in the process of happening!