Scotty

F Scott Fitzgerald reminds us from the grave that it's never too late to start. Start living or start something new. He knew more than most what life could throw at a man, having lived it and lost it over and over in a vain attempt to be the epitome of the lost generation. Despite all his crazy capers and hanging with the lunatic fringe he left us that message; Start. Its never that simple but what can I say? We all have it in us. Putting down the bottle, binning the burger, smiling at our own reflection, thinking twice, apologising, grovelling, opening that book, slowing down, going back, regretting. Or, if we were to be honest, being unapologetic, raising our voices, breaking a plateau or setting the bar higher. I'm not so naïve to think that its so easy. Obstacles are there. Sometimes the move off the couch is the biggest, most crippling effort. And the bar is lower for some it seems, more than others. I know that sometimes we park projects never to return despite our best intentions. There's barns full of rusting husks of cars that will never get that TLC they deserve, there's places that will never get the dreamed-of-visit from the man who was saving for it. Hopes and good wishes and intent die too with time. But imagine starting.... Just the simplest thing, anything. Starting towards the tiniest goal but yet something YOU want, not what people want for you. Or even better, starting, like I did today, towards something you regretted doing and needed badly to rectify. Human beings often want but forget or stop dreaming. A small incidental step is all it requires. Soon a minor alteration can become a world shattering re-boot of huge proportions. Even Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby had two characters that succeeded and, ultimately, failed. Gats blew it all for a dream but was amazing while his sun shone. Nick tried to follow suit but ended up back home in the mid-west a broken man. Both men started. Get it? They changed something, a frame of mind or a pattern or a geographical position in order to go and achieve something different. To start.... Just try. The smallest thing to begin with. Fitzgerald's flawed heroes did not make it but they were ALIVE as they tried to. So there's a simple letter Fitzgerald left, despite his brilliant novels, some unfinished, his poems, his film-scripts his short stories such as Benjamin button, a simple letter that brings it all back to a basic, no frills beginning. He said it's never too late to be whoever you want to be, or too late to start again. But start!