Do what you like but do your best

Do what you like but do your best ©

By

Michael Casey

C.S. on Facebook posted “Follow your Bliss” and when I read it I thought that was good. I had never heard of it before, but Eleanor and C.S. are continually educating me, luckily I’m on this side of the Atlantic so I have 10 seconds to check everything they say on Google so I don’t appear too stupid. However they both do say that I make them laugh, as did Jesters in the Court of King Arthur onwards.

When I read Follow your Bliss I thought there’s another pump primed by the girls. I was going to compare my experience to what it says in Bliss. Then I thought why does everybody quote everybody else on FB? Let’s have more original though, I think I posted a piece by that very name a week or two ago, you can look at my site www.michaelgcasey.wordpress.com to find it.

My dad was a Blacksmith in Rathmore County Kerry Eire, then he worked in a steel works for 40 years here in Smethwick, which is just 1.5 miles away from where I am sat talking to you and pretending to be a Wordsmith. Dad was very clever, his teacher used to say to him, “Casey, one day you will hang.” Teaching methods were different then back in the 1920s and 1930s. My dad became a blacksmith when he was 14, 50 years plus later we found the old forge, it had become a hairdressers, such is progress.

If I can get back to Bliss, my dad did not quote anybody, he just spoke from the heart and from love. He read the newspaper and followed the News avidly, but he probably never read a book in his life, a prayer book maybe but not a book book. This must have been repeated by everybody of that generation, books were expensive, and the library was 2 miles away. We his children have made up for that fact, and if I count as a writer then we have more than compensated. So what do I say about following your dreams? Do what you like but do your best is what dad said and I’d repeat it. If you are happy doing a thing then you’ll be better at it, conversely if you hate a thing it’s hard to be any good at it. I follow the logic that if I hate it I cannot be any good at it, and if I can’t be any good at something then I don’t want to waste my time trying. There is one exception to this rule, Bowling, I am rubbish at it but I enjoy it, I can throw the ball down the gutter then the next throw I can get a strike. Perhaps I should tell Obama this, but I have heard that every Tuesday evening Obama and the Secret Service sneak out  and go bowling. That’s why Obama got a Jorg Grey watch from the Secret Service, he beat them at bowling. I do in fact have a Jorg Grey watch myself, one with a metal strap and Roman markings.

In all things in life if you have something that makes you happy, then just do it. It may be reading your horoscope every day and posting it on FB, it may be posting pictures of cake on FB, or pictures of ranch hands with rippling muscles. Whatever ticks the box for you just do it. In Glee there is the black guy who sings, and dresses up as a woman, you may have your own neighbourhood personality. Bliss is when you achieve your soul’s delight if I’m remembering what Buddhist believe, I may be wrong there but I’m sure the Dali Lama will correct me next time I see him in our chip shop. Telling tale tales is a writer’s delight, it’s even a greater delight when you can pull the wool over people’s eyes, usually your own children before they reach 10. I told C.S. today that I got my orange Polo with a polo game scene printed on it in Saw Grass Mills Florida in 2006. Now what I didn’t tell her was that when I bought it the girl on the checkout wanted my name and address for some reason, so I told the girl that my name was Michael Rumplestiltskin.

Can you spell that for me, Sir?

You don’t know how to spell Rumplestiltskin?

Sorry, Sir, if you can just spell Rumplestiltskin for me

Are you sure you cannot spell Rumplestiltskin?

Sorry Sir, I cannot spell Rumplestiltskin.

Ok, I’ll spell Rumplestiltskin for you.

R u m p l e s t I l t s k I n.

Thank you Sir, have a nice day Mr Rumplestiltskin.

Yes I really did that and yes I’m not making that up, recently I found the till receipt with Rumplestiltskin on it.

So I have followed my path, it amuses me and I like it, I have done what my dad advised me 40 years ago, I have done what I like and I’ve done my best. All I need now is a publisher and a producer with the same sense of humour, but as mum always said God is Good, and I know He has a great sense of humour.