Dear Walt Disney,
Some people think life is a test.
Others think it’s a job interview.
Or a performance review.
Or a grim march toward the end.
But some of us figured it out.
It’s a ride.
Not a lesson to endure.
Not a puzzle to solve.
A ride to experience.
You can grip the bar, teeth clenched, terrified of every drop.
Or you can throw your hands in the air and scream your lungs out.
Same ride.
Different experience.
The merry-go-round is safe.
Predictable.
Reassuring.
Same music.
Same circle.
Same view.
The roller-coaster is chaos.
Upside-down.
Uncertain.
But unforgettable.
And here’s the secret nobody tells you early enough:
You don’t get extra points for playing it safe.
At the end, nobody asks how carefully you sat.
They ask how fully you lived.
Some people arrive at the finish pristine, untouched, barely used.
Others come in scraped, laughing, exhausted, breathless.
One of those groups understands the assignment.
Life isn’t meant to be taken seriously.
It’s meant to be inhabited.
So let me ask the reader something simple:
Are you riding…
or just circling?
Because the track doesn’t last forever.
And when the ride slows to a stop, the only real tragedy isn’t falling.
It’s never having screamed,
never having laughed,
never having said:
“Wow. What a ride.”
In the seat right next to you,
~ The Radical Left