As I enter into the last days of 2020, I look to reflect on this year. Certainly, it has been a difficult year for everyone. It has impacted the entire world in some capacity. Some more than others. This has been one of those years you ask “God what were you thinking…”. Even now we’re in uncharted territory for this generation as new vaccines are being distributed. Governments and peoples are trying to decide to how do we roll it out while maintaining people’s privacy and right to choose. Americans are instilled at birth with the inalienable right to choose what is best for them and their families. It’s a powerful idea that leads to great accomplishments and an enduring hope that the future will be better tomorrow. But…
But what do you do between the now and the future of tomorrow? There is a gapping hole of gray in there and it swallows up so many lives with the promise. The light sometimes gets darker, dimmer. Dare I say it goes out sometime too? This whole human thing, the humanity in all of us trying to measure up in front of our peers, neighbors, friends, & family is somewhat exhausting. So…
So, what do we do as homo sapiens? Apparently, we’ve been evolving for hundreds of millions of years. Hmm… We’ve been evolving that long and we are still in the hunt for perfection(well, maybe excellence)? Well, we find ways to dilute the struggle, alleviate the strain, remove the pain. I call it the elusive ‘search for significance’. We all know the beast that calls to us from the deep recessive of the subconscious to buck up, straighten up, suck it up and become better than you are today in search of the golden chalice of “I’ve made it.”. We still get on this path despite hearing from the people that have ‘made it’ and their troubling conclusion that it empty. It was in fact the struggle, the journey that produced the enduring sense of ‘significance’. Call it progress in your journey…
Some who’ve ‘made it’ say you have to be relentless even ruthless to get to the top. Is that what is called ‘making it’? In this pandemic we’ve called 2020, I’ve found solace in YouTube and Twitter and the world seems to spin out of control in the spaces of social media. Looking for why so many of us seem unhappy even bitter and unhappy with our lives while missing the bigger picture of significance being found in the progress of moving towards finding out that ‘making it’ really is different for all of us. How do we come to terms with that dreams are meant to help become a better you not Bill Gates, Denzel Washington, Michael Jordan, <Plug in your hero here…>. And still…
And still social media wants to push out the message that you can be that person who is your hero, except you can’t really because they are them and you are not them. Then who are you?
Well, now that’s to be determined…