Question: Trying too hard?

You know those people who advertise their businesses by hiring someone to stand on a street corner, waving it frantically in the hopes that this will flip the switch for you and embolden you to drive over to said place of business and spend loads of cash?

Well not so long ago, I saw a sign-holding guy who was, wait for it… reading. Not dancing, not flailing, not listening to music. Reading. And to that I say, well played, good sir.

In other news, the solo parenting continues. I’m not always being the best parent I can be; or am I actually the best I can be just by virtue of that fact that I’m trying as hard as I can at any given time? I’ve always wondered about that whole thing: “do your best, be the best fill in the blank you can be”. Don’t we usually do our best?

I mean, okay, sometimes when I clean the bathroom, I don’t do my best. Mirrors are smudged. The toilet paper could be loaded up or down. I mean, I do a half-assed job and nobody’s the wiser. Same goes for folding clothes. I mean, really, who gives a shit if my towels aren’t rolled perfectly, FFS?

But in things like parenting, and striving to be a decent human being, I kind of think I do my best most, if not almost all of the time. I’m not saying I SUCCEED at perfection; I never do. But I try all the time.

Other people do too, right? I mean, don’t you usually do your best with things that truly matter, like work, relationships, being a stand-up kind of person? I think that's sort of definitional to being human.

I remember a Simpsons episode with Bart saying, “I can’t promise to try. But I’ll try to try.” All meta-hilarity aside, aren’t we always trying?