Cultivating Our Lives

I remember watching a 60 minutes episode once that showed a woman that never went outside because she was afraid of the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. She didn't work or produce anything of worth. Her situation as I saw it was hopeless, because not only was she afraid of the simplest of things, but it had inhibited her from work of any kind. As she hid from pain and death, it had already found her. She was a walking corpse. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography that the used key is always shiny. I'd like to add on this and state the obvious, that an unused one rusts and decomposes. It's a simple law of nature that if one does not grow, they die.

When I was a child, I found that if I knew of something I or one of my siblings did wrongly but professed to know nothing, I could many times get out of trouble and reap (what I assumed at the time) no consequences for my actions. Over time I found that lying about such things is not only damaging to others, but also taints one's soul so that he or she becomes lazy to the point of outlandish means to protect them from a seemingly simple situation. I came to discover that to stand in complete honesty, no matter how disgusting or inconvenient it made me was far greater than an easy lie. You see, trouble is the very thing one needs in order to grow as a human. Jacob found trouble when he wrestled all night with the Angel, and he limped the rest of his life in consequence to his actions. However, without the gumption to leap into an uncomfortable and painful situation, he would never have become the man of renown we know him as today.

To grow, one must hurt themselves; and although this may seem backwards to what is taught today, I'd like to fight the current of careful mothers and assert that danger is paramount if one is to ever live a worthwhile life. The tearing and healing effect appears all throughout nature, and it's just until recently when the idea of protecting ourselves from the water we drink to free radicals floating through the air that that idea has been cast to the wayside. Valor is a word we associate with men of the past. We'd rather play it safe and live as long as we can, no matter how miserable and unproductive we become. We'd rather pump our bodies full of drugs to dull the pain of a wasted life than jump headlong into the unknown to risk life and limb to fulfill our destiny's.

A sad and squandered life, no matter how long lived, is nothing in comparison to the moment one comes in touch with purpose. I say that it's high time we take up the mantels of the past and live life to the fullest no matter the risk! Take responsibility for your actions, fight for the common good, and never use others for the advancement of yourselves. It will always catch up with you in the end. Life is to be lived toiling under the sun, not hiding in a cave.

"Remember, fear looks when faith leaps." -Smith Wigglesworth