In this slower, contemplative season of darkness, I am faced with an unusual overabundance of time, do to some recent surgery and recovery. It has afforded me a lot of time to reflect and think about the world I seem to be a part of but often try to escape through creating. Now I’m not saying this is ALL healthy, plenty of it has been hell, and possibly the musings of a demented unoccupied mind during surgery recovery. BUT I sat down and wrote a couple of pages on my thoughts today, and again, these are just free-form machinations of my mind. I didn’t use Chat GPT to edit or shorten it; it’s just unfiltered, what I’ve been thinking about lately. With all of the CRAZY that seems to be going on now, and the enormity of the mire we are sucked into on the internet, sometimes it feels like, if posting this makes any positive difference to anyone “in this day and age” LOL, then why not do so. You can always just scroll past if you aren’t interested in reading. Its long.
Now, I abhor a zealot. There is nothing worse to me, so I want to make it clear that this is not written with any kind of judgement, or fundamentalist fervor or rage, just sitting down to contemplate the experiences I have been having and witnessing in the past couple years. And I’m certainly not referring to, or blind to, the multitude of extreme trauma situations of the present and past centuries. These are just everyday life observations
“What I hear a lot these days from youth as far as the criterium of what they want to do or be is “ I want to do THIS because its “easier” and I will make more “money”, and I thought…”where are the dreams, passion and hopes of the work itself?”
Why are we obsessed with how Easy or difficult something is? This is a shift from motivations I personally knew. I grew up in the original Star Wars days. I saw that and it instantly sparked something that resonated with me! I wanted to be a special effects animator and create that MAGIC for others that I felt. It had nothing to do with being easy or hard. It was about a passion. Then I found an even more difficult passion that took me in a different direction to become a professional ballet dancer. But it was never a question for me of whether it was “easy” or not. Now that I am no longer a dancer, but a visual artist,…need I say more?
Why is “easier” more preferable to hard or challenging or difficult? Especially in the youth? I don’t remember being raised with this strategy. I was raised to “give your BEST and give your ALL” not “just do enough to get by”. This is foreign to me. “I heard a young 18 yr old man say to me the other day, “I don’t really need to worry about trying to get “As”, I can just get “Bs” and it will be fine…” and I guess I was a little taken aback by that. But why WOULDN’T you want to try to do the BEST you can do if you know you CAN get the “As”? Now I’m getting preachy and I don’t mean to be; everyone is wired differently. But it struck me as such a polar opposite mindset than is etched into my own brain.
I’m older. I experience daily, the feeling of hoping things will be a little easier. But that is after decades and decades of hard work. But I also know, when it comes down to it, that I have a fortitude that is forged by the risks and decisions I have made that were not the “easy” way, and that I still have dreams to work towards. I get scared all the time, but I know that I have the strength within me to push through that fear to the reward on the other side.
There used to be a pride or ambition attached to something that was difficult. Not that the goal HAD to be difficult, but it was worth the difficulty to pursue passion. That if you had a passion and worked hard at it, that it would “pay off” in the long run. I have come to realize that, maybe this was once an ideal in this country we were raised with, rather than an actual truth. Perhaps generations, after this time, have SEEN this and decided it really WASN’T worth it in the end for their priors. Now it seems it is viewed as NOT worth it and what is “easiest” is preferable. Why is this? Does it erode the commitment to find meaning and value in ones life or work? Do youth as a whole have less “dreams” than we once used to? Or is it that we have come to the conclusion that how much “Money” you have is the ultimate goal and desire? The thing that means the MOST in life? And that the desire now is NOT having to work hard but having the maximum money for the least effort…?
Without actual passion and a spirit or commitment for what you spend 3/4 of your life doing, what sustains you? Money? It can give you the “things” you may want, but it will not feed your soul or being, and it seems to me that is what we are here for…. If life was just supposed to be the “easiest” path/experience what would be the point of being here in this life?
Profound growth seems like it comes from adversity and having to go/work through difficulties. If you actually always “choose” the easiest thing to do, how will you ever learn to sustain yourself or create a resilience in yourself to sustain you through difficult times?…they WILL come.
Is this not what gives life its gravity and meaning?
Now, I’m NOT a parent, so don’t get all over me about “you don’t know anything about it”. I realize that and have learned my lessons on that front. I don’t claim to know what it’s like and I’m not trying to tell you how to raise your kids, or judging. BUT I did HAVE parents, and I don’t know if we are doing our children a favor by pampering them and making life as easy as possible for them.
Are they going to have the tools to face adversity when it comes in life, or instead, stand back passively and let someone or even a “bot” take over and control their lives?
And I repeat, I’m certainly not referring to, or blind to, the multitude of extreme trauma situations of the present and past centuries. These are just everyday life observations
If you don’t raise someone with challenges and difficult things to do, or make them do things that are scary, do they develop a value system that knows (through experience) that there are deeper more profound rewards than money.
There is a fortitude that is learned from past experiences. If you don’t grow up with or establish this early, is it less likely it will develop later, especially with our “easy” technological and instant gratification age? Its not impossible, but as we get older, it is “easier” to continue in our established “easy” set of values, rather than taking a scary risk to discover something deeper. It may be that the gravity of a very scary difficult situation or event in someone’s life will come to such a head that they will be actually “forced” to make a choice of challenge or not. This may begin the dawning of a deeper realization that there is more to life than just being comfortable. But is it far more effective to grow up and evolve with this set of values rather than having to be traumatically introduced to this later in life?
It also appears that AI and the “Bot” pathway has little resistance moving forward in this pathway from today’s “easy-way” generations, and that is concerning, if you stop to think about the possible outcome. Its not science fiction anymore.
Fear seems often based on lack of exposure or inexperience. Not that it disappears with experience, but it is less brutal and inhibiting when you have lived through and achieved scary, difficult things, than if you have never done so. You have a precedent frame of experiential reference that assists you in confronting that fear, and doing the thing ANYWAY. For the rewards or possible rewards of that fortitude. Maybe that will mean money, but it will definitely mean a more profound value and sense of achievement than money will.
Do it anyway.
It is ok to be afraid, or fear, but is it ok to let fear immobilize your soul into inaction or not believing in your passions and intuitions, and always choose the easy way. I don't know if this is the path to growth. It may sound “woo woo” but in my most serene moments I feel like we are all here to “remember” our divine and mutually beneficial connection to each other. And that before we choose to be here on this plain, we come from a place where there are no limitations and all is possible.
Wishing and Dreaming are two different things.
One leads to action and working towards.
Maybe,”Dream and Do it anyway” , then make sure you credit yourself for going for it, for this is no small thing anymore “in this day and age”
Even if you fail; ESPECIALLY if you fail; that experience and learning (if you can observe it) is more valuable that ALL of your successes. Because it is organically from YOU! it is exploration, effort, risk and ultimately growth for the next creation you channel.
DREAM BIG! The World needs your big dreams and for you to pay attention to them.