Ride My See-Saw

My generation had great tunes as the soundtrack for our coming of age.  Perhaps more importantly, many of the lyrics put to those rock melodies spoon-fed philosophy to us.

One classic song that might at first be dismissed as simply an upbeat song that makes us smile actually influenced my life greatly.  

Ride My See-Saw by the Moody Blues came out in 1968, but it really became embedded in my consciousness in 1970 when my self-identified "intellectual" high school Physics lab-partner Scott played the album In Search of the Lost Chord for me.

The song truly struck a long-remembered chord with me.

Start now.

Run!

I won't say I've been running ever since, but the general message resonated with me.

This song wasn't about being a child at a playground but enjoying life to the fullest.

None of us look back and say I wish I would have done less traveling.

That doesn't mean you should abandon security, walking away from your job or running up massive debt.

But if you want to travel, travel.

You don't need to live as a vagabond, constantly on the move.

If you take a cruise once or twice a year to a dream destination, then over your lifetime you will find you have seen much of the world.  

It's not a free ride in the sense that you don't pay for it.

It's taking time to appreciate being free, a privilege few commoners in history have ever experienced.  Far too many beneficiaries of the great advances of Western Civilization fail to appreciate this gift from our Founding Fathers found in the Preamble for The Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The "pursuit of Happiness" does not mean that you are assured Happiness, but you have the right to pursue it, and that pursuit is part of the fun.

Where will you go with this great freedom?