With friends like these…

I haven’t watched an episode of Cheers in longer than I can remember, but the other night I happened upon the season five finale, “I Do and Adieu” from 7 May 1987.

Sam and Diane were about to get married, but Diane had a chance to finish her book, something which had been important to her but which she had neglected for several years while she worked at the bar.

She kept trying to ignore it, saying that she could do it another time, that she didn’t have to choose between them. Sam saw it differently. Although he really did seem to want to marry her, he saw this as her chance, and he knew that if she didn’t take it now, she never would. He knew this was what she was good at.

Of course, being Sam, he didn’t come right out and say that. Instead, well, it went like this:

Sam: You’re bad at ballet, you’re terrible at acting, you can’t draw worth a lick; you’re bad at poetry, photography, cinema… omelettes… I mean, they’re going to have to start inventing things for you to be bad at—

Diane: Make your point, Sam.

Sam: You’re good at writing. I think we finally found something you don’t stink at.

In the end, she goes off to write, saying that she’ll be back. Sam says goodbye, believing that she won’t be back. And indeed she wasn’t.

What’s the point? What’s the moral of the story? Maybe there is none. Maybe it was just a plot device for a character who wouldn’t return to a sitcom the following year.

Maybe it’s a reminder that we sometimes spend our lives doing the things that we don’t really want to do and thinking that there will be a time when we’ll get to do what we really want to do. Perhaps sometimes that’s unavoidable.

I’m not saying I believe that we only get “One Chance” at happiness and if we miss it, we’re boned. What I am saying is that there are days, or perhaps even moments when there are paths opened up to us that aren’t always going to be there.

And hopefully when the right moment comes along, there’s someone there who says “Look, there aren’t infinite possibilities every day for everyone to do everything, but this right here, this is it, and it’s scary and unexpected and the road ahead is anything but certain, but this is the opportunity that’s before you right now, and you should take it.

I don’t feel like I’ve had that experience myself. Part of me really believes that there’s something out there but I’m not entirely sure what it is yet. I hope that I’m doing the things that I need to do to be ready for it when it appears, and I hope I recognize what it is when it does. Part of me is afraid that I’m so busy with the routines of life that I might miss it. Yet another part of me is more afraid that there is nothing else around the corner, and wonders if I’ll spend the rest of my life waiting for something that will never happen… even if I’m not entirely sure what it will be.

Except that I don’t feel like my life is ‘on hold’ waiting for whatever it is. I feel pretty fortunate for the life I have. I don’t feel that there’s something ‘missing’ from my life. Just that there’s another significant something out there.

I just wish I had some idea what it was.