“Take nothing personally, least of all ourselves.”
Vaccines, masks, restrictions, phase 5 — to do or not to do. So serious, what others choose also so very serious.
Is it really? At the end of the day none of us will get out of life alive. We all die at some point. Why then take so much about a virus so seriously. Why sacrifice human connection while we are still alive in the name of being right?
Human connection is ultimately the true reason for living. I would argue it is only worth living if we can connect with others and not live in war at all times.
“Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary.”
Yesterday as I coached youth, there were many complaints about routes. The routes were ‘too reachy’ or required too much flexibility. I asked a simple question… are you happy when you are complaining? Of course they are pre-teens so they wanted to argue that they were in fact happy when complaining.
What is a complaint? A complaint is a statement about what is wrong. It is a statement of resistance about the way things are. It is an argument against reality as we perceive it. To complain is to struggle with reality.
I overheard a conversation one afternoon… the gist was someone complaining about their performance and coaches comment was, “the world owes you nothing.” The words stopped me in my tracks. I had been complaining about my work just prior to overhearing those words.
The world owes you nothing.
Absolutely true. Absolutely. We are not owed our next breath, let alone our health, our families, our homes. Even our wages are not guaranteed. Covid has certainly taught all of us this lesson.
It has also shown us just how entitled we are. Governments giving out subsidies to assist and then people complaining when they did not qualify or the government taxes the income, or requests it is repaid. It was never owed. Just because there is a government and we pay taxes, does not mean they are there to bail us out of every situation. Remember what happened in Greece a few years ago.
When a virus shows up, even governments cannot stop it from taking lives. Nurses, doctors, scientists can do their best, but the virus can do what it does in the same way a hurricane can arrive on your shores and tear your home apart. No guarantees.
As humans we attempt to make our lives have guarantees of safety. But it is not actually possible. We pretend we are safe, but the truth is we are not. And our choice to avoid looking at the truth of our lack of safety creates an illusion glossing over reality and the idea of being entitled to safety, a home, food. But we are not entitled to anything. We must make choices that hopefully result in our safety and our full bellies. Some of those choices may be ones we do not want to make.
