So what ever happened to “The Do Over?”
You know, like when you were a kid playing war or something, and if you lost you could just claim a “do over.”
I bring this up because I think Lent is the closest thing to a “do over” we get anymore.
I’m not Catholic, but I don’t think they’ll mind if I participate.
I wasn’t going to give anything up (like usual), but I changed my mind Wednesday.
I was watching a movie in which Penelope Cruz told me, “every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.”
I wanted to scream out, “Do over!”
But I didn’t, because the friend I was watching it with probably wouldn’t understand.
So what did I give up?
I’ll never tell, but let’s just say I’ve claimed a “do over.”
Some people I’ve talked to about this are concerned because they think everything happens for a reason, and that is the reason you can’t have a “do over.”
But I say, “you’re right.” Everything does happen for a reason, and that’s exactly why we all get the chance to have a “do over.”
Now, it is true that we lack the technology to travel back in time, so that rules out going back to last September when you should have gone over and talked to that girl at the bar with the Jim Morrison shirt and the hoop earrings, or going back to 4th grade and kicking that guy’s ass who called you “fatty-boom-ba-latty” in front of the entire school instead of running out of the gym crying like a little bitch.
However, the “do over” does allow you to sit at the bar every night until you see that girl again, go up to her, buy her a drink and say, “It’s been a while.”
It also allows you to find that jackass’s address, go there with a baseball bat and beat his sorry ass until you feel he has adequately paid his debt to you.
But really, a “do over” isn’t about making up; it’s about starting over.
It might mean you have to cut some losses, and that might hurt a few people.
But now is not the time to be thinking about others. It’s “you time.”
I don’t know about you, but just thinking about it makes me smile — ah, a “do over.”
It seems like there should be some music playing in the background, something like Gladys Knight and The Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
“He’s leavin’ (leavin’) on that midnight train to Georgia (leavin’ on a midnight train).”
Anywho, my name is Jay Melder, and I claim a “do over.”