“Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.” ~T.S. Eliot~
The average child in Japan and in the U.S. will most likely be able to live – though not necessarily thrive – for 80 years or more. For some, this will be a clarion call for celebration. For many others, unfortunately, this lifespan news will spell disappointment, frustration, tragedy and disaster.
From royalty to street cleaners, we all have a chance to beat the odds and develop into thinking, proactive adults who needn’t cling to the trappings’ of wealth or the bowels’ of poverty.
You see, the easiest thing to do is to live down to low expectations. The royal can live a leisurely life of do-nothingness. The street cleaner can claim that his low life is in his DNA and subsequently surrender before making an earnest attempt to arise from the living dead.
And when a person surrenders or takes the path of least resistance, there is no telling how low he or she can go. Debauchery has no boundary after the surrender. Pill popping, alcohol abusing, philandering, and venting lead the lost to the Land of Meaninglessness Going Nowhere. Divorce, business failure and blessings lost ensue for the clueless.
The absolute saddest part of watching friends and family go into a tailspin is that most (in such dis-ease) are in a total state of denial.
When you mention that they need help, they say they have it under control or that you should mind your own business.
When they say you don’t love me or respect me (anymore), you feel distraught and tinged with guilt…because that may be exactly your sentiments.
When they say don’t leave me, the first thought is that you must in order to protect your own sanity.
Here is the bottom line: In order to be fully functional and running on full throttle, you must surround yourself with people filled with enthusiasm for life.
If you dive into murky waters, you will save nobody and probably drown. As a spouse or good friend, you must of course do what you can to steer the possessed to find able counsel. Continue to do so intermittently.
But get a grip on yourself. You were born for greatness. And your greatness can serve as an example to others who have had pain and have surmounted uncountable obstacles to become fully-functioning adults.
You move closer to divinity by become rich in every aspect of the word rather than being the enabler and crying towel for the proud who choose misery rather than help.
