Life
Tomorrow is a momentous occasion for me. I will be packing up and heading towards big Lawton to join about 50 or so of my high school classmates for a weekend of reminiscing. Yes friends, it has been ten years since I graduated from Big Mac. I have already seen from our reunion website (mhsclassof96.org) that many people have moved on to bigger and better or just different things, many are still in Lawton – some of whom married the only person they dated in high school, and sadly, there are some who didn’t live to see these ten years go by.
I have really pondered the brevity of life these past few weeks as I considered the finality of the lives lost in my graduating class alone. Consider George Ellis III. He was a kind-hearted individual who got along with just about everybody and always made me smile. He died in his early twenties in a car wreck. Then there’s Clayton Myers who shot himself in the head (reportedly in front of his family) when I was a freshman in college.
As I look around me there are so many people who are just living life trying to muddle through every day. For certain individuals this pattern simply repeats itself over and over and over…and over. This life can be an extremely long one for those who live that way. It can also be very short for those who don’t.
I have come to one, what I think is somewhat profound, conclusion about life: Those who seem to be miserable and are just trying to hack it seem to all have something in common…they lack purpose. Those who have a clearly defined purpose for themselves and the course of their lives seem to enjoy life so much more than those who have little or no purpose. For the muddle throughers, life drags on and on and there is seemingly no end to the mundaneness brought about by purposelessness.
You see these people all the time. These are the single people that think they will be happy if they can just find someone to marry. These are the married people that just wish they hadn’t married so young. These are the housewives that wish they were working, the working moms that wish they were housewives. This is the school teacher that lives for the weekends and summers. This is the parent who thinks it will all be better once the children are out of diapers, in school, grown... There are a million more examples. Why can’t people just enjoy being single, married, a parent, etc. It is because they have not found or created a purpose for themselves.
Every time in my life when I can remember it being a rough time or a time that just seemed to drag on forever is a time when I lost sight of my purpose. I hadn’t been self or otherwise diagnosed with purposelessness-itis, but I had it nonetheless. I have suffered from this several times over the course of my life, but I am currently blessed with a clear vision of my purpose and a lot of pity for those who haven’t found or can’t currently see theirs. So if you find yourself just trying to keep your head above water each day ask yourself: “Self, what is your purpose?” If you can truly answer that question or find the answer to that question, I think you will see that life is such a joy (no pun intended).
I have really pondered the brevity of life these past few weeks as I considered the finality of the lives lost in my graduating class alone. Consider George Ellis III. He was a kind-hearted individual who got along with just about everybody and always made me smile. He died in his early twenties in a car wreck. Then there’s Clayton Myers who shot himself in the head (reportedly in front of his family) when I was a freshman in college.
As I look around me there are so many people who are just living life trying to muddle through every day. For certain individuals this pattern simply repeats itself over and over and over…and over. This life can be an extremely long one for those who live that way. It can also be very short for those who don’t.
I have come to one, what I think is somewhat profound, conclusion about life: Those who seem to be miserable and are just trying to hack it seem to all have something in common…they lack purpose. Those who have a clearly defined purpose for themselves and the course of their lives seem to enjoy life so much more than those who have little or no purpose. For the muddle throughers, life drags on and on and there is seemingly no end to the mundaneness brought about by purposelessness.
You see these people all the time. These are the single people that think they will be happy if they can just find someone to marry. These are the married people that just wish they hadn’t married so young. These are the housewives that wish they were working, the working moms that wish they were housewives. This is the school teacher that lives for the weekends and summers. This is the parent who thinks it will all be better once the children are out of diapers, in school, grown... There are a million more examples. Why can’t people just enjoy being single, married, a parent, etc. It is because they have not found or created a purpose for themselves.
Every time in my life when I can remember it being a rough time or a time that just seemed to drag on forever is a time when I lost sight of my purpose. I hadn’t been self or otherwise diagnosed with purposelessness-itis, but I had it nonetheless. I have suffered from this several times over the course of my life, but I am currently blessed with a clear vision of my purpose and a lot of pity for those who haven’t found or can’t currently see theirs. So if you find yourself just trying to keep your head above water each day ask yourself: “Self, what is your purpose?” If you can truly answer that question or find the answer to that question, I think you will see that life is such a joy (no pun intended).
posted by kteachjoy @ 7/27/2006 10:53:00 PM
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