Step By Step

Perhaps I am a little old fashioned, but I don’t think anything can compare with the beauty and charm of a brick home.  Its durability and low maintenance are additional attributes that make it very appealing.  For me, it also stands as a testimony to what an accumulation of small  steps can accomplish.

Years ago I worked as a laborer for block layers.  We were building 3-story condos on the bank of a creek in Annapolis Maryland.  I have no idea how many blocks I handled during that project, but the principle is the same as a brick facade on a home.  You can’t really think about the massive amount of work involved.  You just put each item in place one at a time, and eventually the job is done.

So much of life is this way.  We complete a formal education  one class at a time.  Savings accounts are built up a few dollars at a time deposited on a regular basis.  Long careers are achieved one day at a time.  We raise healthy and well balanced children by providing them with consistent love, guidance and nurturing day by day.

It would be nice if all of the things we want in life could be obtained quickly.  Unfortunately, it often requires unexciting regular diligence over long periods in order to accomplish meaningful goals.  We tend to marvel at outstanding athletic performances or the skills demonstrated by entertainers.What we fail to consider are the endless unobserved hours of practice  required to reach that level of excellence.

The sun is fueled by innumerable tons of hydrogen atoms.  Our bodies are comprised of trillions of cells working in harmony to form a single organism.  Individually none of these contributory elements  are particularly significant, but together they produce amazing results. 

Our challenge is to learn to appreciate the value of each installment we make in our future. Our daily exercise may not be particularly exciting, but living a long active and productive life will certainly make the effort worthwhile.  Sure, staying in bed and sleeping or lying on the sofa watching TV might be more enjoyable in the short-term, but we can’t go back in time and redo our lives when we find ourselves incapacitated by poor health. 

Making healthy choices is only one example of this principle.  We need to take time to envision the future we wish to have in the next one, five, ten or twenty years.  Then it is essential to determine what little consistent steps need to be taken in order to manifest that goal.  Above all, we cannot afford to wait until we ‘get around to it’.  We must pick a day, start  doing it and stick with it until we are successful.  As stated in the Tao Te Ching, “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet.”  So, start walking.  

Where Did The Time Go?

One of the most memorable  times I really was struck by how fast life was moving along was in the fall of 1989.  My oldest son was getting ready to start high school.  Even though I had graduated from high school 21 years before, it seemed like it had just happened a few years previously.  It was only a momentary awareness, but it definitely drew my attention to the passage of time..

The 1st century Stoic philosopher, politician and playwright, Seneca, addressed this issue in an essay known as On the Shortness of Life.  One of his most famous quotes comes from this essay, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”  He thoroughly expounds on the point that we tend to pay a great deal of attention to how we spend our money and protect our belongings but regularly waste our most valuable possession, time. 

In our current age I suspect that the greatest consumers of our time are our electronic devices.  If we were brave enough to track our screen time, we would probably be shocked by the amount of time that we spend staring at our displays while important daily activities are neglected. How often do we claim that we didn’t have time to accomplish everything on our agenda when the truth is that we were endlessly distracted by a series of news items, social media posts or prolonged texting with family or friends.

How often do  we allow others to squander our time.  I generally try to be kind and courteous towards others.  However, I have reached my limit with telemarketers. Now, when they ask, “How are you today?”, I simply ask who they are and what do they want.  I’m getting older and don’t know how much longer I’ll be around.  So I choose not to waste time explaining why I am not interested in whatever it is they are selling.

I have been accused of being a workaholic, and there may be some truth to that.  Mostly, I have always felt a need to be productive.  That is not to say that I don’t relax occasionally, but I typically try to accomplish those things that are needful on a daily basis.

Years ago I came across a little book in a Christian book store.  By its title I suspect that it was purchased for sale because it was assumed it dealt with salvation issues.  However,If You Don’t Know Where You are going You will Probably Wind Up Somewhere Else provided career planning advice for young people.  The title, nevertheless, offers sound advice for every aspect of our lives.  We need to take time to clearly identify what we would like to achieve and spend our time effectively pursuing those goals.

I genuinely feel sorry for the millions of people who will reach the end of their lives knowing that things could have been so much better if they had simply been focussed and not squandered their time in frivolous activities. Seneca seemed to have this in mind when he wrote, “So you must not think that a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles.  He has not lived long, just existed long..  For what if you should think that that man had had a long voyage who had been caught by a fierce storm as soon as he left harbor, and, swept hither and thither by a succession of winds that raged from different quarters, had been driven in a circle around the same course? Not much voyaging did he have, but much tossing about.”  

If we were to go on a long roadtrip, we would begin with a full tank of gas in the car.  Initially, there would be little thought about how much fuel was being consumed because there was plenty in the tank.  Side trips would be no concern until we reached a point where we realized the gage was nearing empty, and there was no gas station available to refill.  Then, our destination would become a major concern. 

Perhaps we should consider the fact that none of us has any guarantee of long life.  A helpful habit would be nightly reflections on what we have accomplished that day.  It would not be healthy for us to obsess over living productively, but regular circumspection certainly would be beneficial.

When I was about 30 years old, I wrote a son~~g entitled Leaf On A River.  Clearly I was already reflecting on how easily time can slip by without our conscious awareness.  The 3rd verse and chorus are as follows:

3

Life is like a leaf on a river.

Seems like it will go on forever.

But, look away for a moment and it’s gone.

Past the rocks and around the bend.

Never to be lived again.

Into the sea forever, 

Your life is gone.

Chorus:

And that sea keeps on growing

As our lives keep on flowing bye and bye,

And all the while inside we’re knowing

That it won’t be long till we are out of time.

A final word from Seneca,

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing..”

 

Mutual Bliss

I find much of human behavior completely baffling.  It ranges from unimaginable cruelty to totally selfless altruism.  To me, the absolute indifference of perpetrators and/or observers to the pain and suffering experienced in the Roman colosseums, Nazi death camps, widespread lynchings of blacks attended by thousands of spectators in a festival atmosphere (yes, right here in the good ol’ USA), the systematic torture and execution of political prisoners under the Assad regime in Syria or the genocide previously taking place in Gaza, is completely incomprehensible.  

In total contrast to the carnage, we could enumerate the vast number of historical examples of self sacrifice by individuals seeking to pursue peace and bring comfort to those who are suffering.  However, we need not look any further than the vast number of NGO’s and individuals currently working tirelessly around the world to aid those in need.  World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders are just two examples of organizations comprised of individuals who are willing to place themselves in the midst of danger in order to help their fellow human beings.

Of course, we could consider the current domination of mega global corporations that are heartlessly exploiting the disempowered in a mad obsession with accumulating wealth and power.  Food, housing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, elder care, and other essentials are being monopolized in an effort to extract maximum revenues while providing marginally adequate services and goods.  If someone could discover how to control the availability of air, there is no doubt that  we would have to labor endlessly just to be allowed to breathe.

Not since the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has our government been so openly controlled by the wealthy.  Consequently, the tax structure and pertinent legislation heavily favor businesses while ignoring the impact on the general population. This is certainly nothing new.  A casual reflection on history reveals the timeless obsession with wealth accumulated by the heartless expenditure of human suffering and drudgery.

The occasional glimpses of egalitarian cooperation and harmony are both refreshing and far too rare.  In its simplest form, the answer seems to be whether or not we have a sense of connection with one another.  If we view others as an extension of ourselves, we are inclined to pursue interactions that are mutually beneficial.  The question is simply what is more important, people or things?

The other night I woke up with the following almost completely formed in my heart:

Mutual Bliss

I come 

Not to conquer or control

But to be 

One with you

Wholly present 

In the bonds of mutuality

Join me here

And we, together with others,

Will enter that bliss

That eludes those who walk alone