A golden oldie . . .

Recently, I was cleaning out my attic, and found some old notebooks.  Many of my writings from years ago when I was 19-22 years old.  Kind of interesting, I always love coming across old journal entries.  I almost always think to myself, "Self, you really had your priorities wrong back then."  But with this new find I thought to myself, "Self, you kinda have your priorities wrong right now.  You were on to something back then.  What happened?" as well as thoughts like the former.  But the thing is there were some pieces of insight then that I've completely forgotten about now, and I do wonder, what happened?  Here's the excerpt (with a few sprucing, because I do remember writing this in haste):
Expectations, and Desire
A father and son, while on a family trip to Six-Flags theme park decide to leave the group and explore.  It is their first time at the park, and before they showed up that day they had done a little online research to find out what were the cool rides, and which ones they wanted to ride the most.  The son says, "I want to go on Giant-Drop!" barely able to control his ten-year-old enthusiasm.
The father simply smiles and replies, "If you have no expectations, then you'll never be disappointed."
"I don't get it, Dad." Says the son in a semi-irritable tone.
"If you want to go on the Giant-Drop, then go get in line for the Giant-Drop, I'll be right behind you.  But don't expect to go on the Giant-Drop just because you're in line, because it may be broken before we get to go on, it may even be broken before we get to the line.  If you get your hopes up because you expect to do something, and then can't do it, you'd be pretty disappointed, right?"
The son's face clearly shows that he did not foresee a lecture, and is not very pleased to be receiving one while on a trip to this fantastic place.  "Yeah, I guess you're right."
The father continues, "For example, I really want to go on Batman, because it looks like it would be a lot of fun.  But I also know that Batman has the longest lines, and the most break-downs.  And since you and I are on a two hour time limit from your mother, I can't expect to go because the line may be too long, or it may be broken.  So let's walk over to Giant-Drop and get in line, okay?"  As the father finishes his speech, the pair rounds the corner only to find that Giant-Drop is in fact broken, and for the rest of the day no less.  The son's expression changes to utter disbelief, then extreme disappointment, the kind of disappointment that only a parent could bring on in a child.
"Come on kiddo, lets go check on Batman."
The son stomps his feet, "NO!  Because you're probably right, and then we'll ride your ride and not mine!"
"If you have no expectations, then you'll never be disappointed."  They make their way over to the Batman ride, only to find that it too is broken-down for the day.  But the father keeps his cheery self the whole time.
"Dad, why are you still smiling?  Your ride is broken too."
"Because I had no expectations, so I'm not disappointed."  Instead they discuss the prospects of time, since they haven't had to wait in either line.  They agree to go on V-squared and Raging-Bull, and after, find that they had a lot of extra time left over because of abnormally short lines, that they could also go on Viper.  The father and son return to the rest of the family just in time, and it a mood that was better then before.

I feel this ideal of releasing your expectations of what life will give you is absolutely necessary in this day and age.  Instead of feeling entitled, which I have found myself doing from time to time, to any sort of success, I need to figure out what the terms of success are.  Are they defined by my standards, or are they defined by some other set of standards?  Am I trying to achieve a level of success that I see on TV or in the movies?  Do I feel that to be happy I need to buy stuff, or at least have a lot of money so that I can buy stuff?


"You have a right to your actions,
but never to your actions' fruits.
Act for the action's sake.
And do not be attached to inaction.

Self-possessed, resolute, act
without any thought of results,
open to success or failure.
This equanimity is yoga."

-Lord Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)