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The Extraordinary Concept of Living
You are sitting there wondering what to make of yourself, of your life, of maybe the next few minutes. Give those minutes to me. I want to show you something.
Hint: It’s all up to you.
We Americans of the twenty-first century like to take paths of least resistance. Favorite yoga position? Child pose (it’s restorative!). Favorite way to pass time? Looking at a cellphone (more than 12 billion times per day!). Favorite day? Friday. OK I don’t know your favorite anything (was I even close?).
But I know this: life is a series of efforts comprised of very small, sometimes seemingly unrelated labors. And they link together in a long chain that has a starting point and an end point. The chain is rigid — you cannot bend it to shortcut your way to the destination. You can progress along it, and you can fork from it. Moving along your personal chain straight ahead or along the forks takes effort. No one is going to burst into your room and discover you as a magical, complete, amazing human, a la the Kool Aid Man “Oh Yeah, we found him, boys!” You can, however, build yourself into being something greater than your present self.
Hint: Stop watching.
I walk down my street in the evening when the lights of other people’s homes are on and the curtains still drawn open. Every wall is glowing with a…
