Why Try

Sometimes I stop and look around and wonder why we do it. For the 80 years or so we’re blessed with walking the earth, why do we care so passionately about things the way we do? Our lifetimes are but a speck on the timeline of the world. No one will remember us a hundred years after we’re gone. Hell, only a few will remember us a just few years after we’re gone. So why do we try so hard to do certain things? To write a symphony? To train for a marathon? To go back to college and learn a new skill? And why do we celebrate each other for these things? I think it’s because we recognize the tragedy of mortality. After all, mortality is the one thing that connects us. We all exit the ride the same way. So when some of us reach beyond the routines of life that pin most of us to the ground, we applaud them. These people aren’t Gods. They haven’t become immortal. They’ve simply decided that life, in spite of its inevitable tragedy, means more than being chained to the ground. Passion is like laughter that rises above the din of the machine. And maybe keeps rising forever. Every day we wake, we are blessed with a choice – to rise up, or stay chained down. *** Jim Mitchem