Vienna Waits for You

Matthew McConaughey and Billy Joel. Not much of a connection it would seem, but their words have spoken to me in recent weeks and, to me, they’re connected.

I don’t know if it’s the lingering winter weather, circumstances in life, or just the fact that I’m another year older, but I’ve been feeling something deep inside. I want to say that I’m feeling nostalgic, but that seems to be looking back at what has already happened in my life. I feel that same sort of feeling, but I feel it as I look forward in life. Call it “forward-thinking nostalgia”, I guess.

I was listening to an oldies station a couple of weeks ago and the song, “Vienna”, by Billy Joel,  came on. I know the song but have not paid close attention to the lyrics.

But you know that when the truth is told

That you can get what you want

Or you can just get old

You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through

When will you realize... Vienna waits for you?

Hmmm. I can get what I want or I can just get old. Not that I necessarily want Vienna, but whatever it is I want is waiting for me. When will I realize that?

Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for best actor this year. I didn’t watch the entire Academy Awards program so I ended up missing his speech. Because I saw his speech posted on Facebook, I decided to see what he had to say. Although many were impressed that he thanked God as he was talking, I thought it was much more thought provoking when he began to talk about going after his hero.

And to my hero. That's who I chase. Now when I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me and say 'who's your hero?' And I said, 'I don't know, I gotta think about that. Give me a couple of weeks.' I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says 'who's your hero?' I said, 'I thought about it. You know who it is? It's me in 10 years.' So I turned 25. Ten years later, that same person comes to me and says, 'So, are you a hero?' And I was like, 'not even close. No, no, no.' She said, 'Why?' I said, 'Because my hero's me at 35.' So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero's always 10 years away. I'm never gonna be my hero. I'm not gonna attain that. I know I'm not, and that's just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.

First of all, I’m not a fan of the word “hero”. I think that it’s been over used and misused since 9-11 and the true meaning of a hero has been watered down. I don’t think I really have any heroes in my life. In this situation, though, I think the term mentor or role model can be used in place of hero. Who is my role model? 

Who do I look to as someone that I want to emulate and learn from? What better person than an improved, focused, streamlined self to have as a goal to attain? No one else will be exactly who I want to be. There will always be something in another person’s lifestyle choices that is not something that I want in my life. Only as I picture myself in the future do I see who I truly want to be. That person should be my mentor and who I am striving to be.

To some, it may seem disappointing that we can never achieve hero status since it’s something that seems to be 10 years out of our grasp at every point in life. To me, however, it’s exciting! I see what I want to become and set my goals accordingly. If I have a bad day, or even a bad year, and seem to have a setback from attaining that 10-year goal, I see it as a fresh opportunity to regroup and rethink what I want to become. And I’m still looking 10 years ahead of myself, whether it’s from a successful day or a defeated year.

At 54 years old, it may seem daunting to think in terms of ten years…and ten years beyond that. As the song says, I’m going to kick off before I even get halfway through. But that’s the joy of life! I want to have so many dreams, plans, goals, and life events that I die before I accomplish them all. I want to die in the midst of doing them. No, I don’t wish for an early death—I wish for, and plan for, a prolonged, fully-lived life. I don’t want to give up on who I am and what I can accomplish. Maybe in becoming a role model for myself, I’ll also end up being a role model for others. After all, it's hard to lead others if I'm not willing to follow myself.

Why should I just get old when I can get what I want? Every opportunity, my Vienna (whatever that may be), is out there waiting for me to discover it. Each day that I accomplish something that moves me a step closer to that 10-year goal is a day closer to Vienna…and my new, improved 10-year goal.