Each of us who've managed to begin drawing the Social Security we spent decades paying into also have overcome plenty of life's challenges and heartaches.
This staying-alive thing isn't an easy journey for most. Fair and easy clearly isn't in the equation. Because you've survived long enough to still be reading, you've endured enough experiences to relate to reality versus all the youthful hopes and dreams.
Some among us sadly have lost everything along that continuing journey, often without warning. Other fundamentally good people have endured one career and personal downfall after another. Many have suffered the ultimate agony of losing a child, a loved one, or both. Pain and so-called failure arise in all shapes and forms.
In my own continual battles, I'd say professionally I thankfully continue to achieve many fulfillments and goals I'd hoped for as a young man, while personally, well, life has brought much different results than my early hopes and expectations.
There's bound to be an equal number among you who've lived just the opposite experiences by largely attaining personal goals, yet falling short of your professional expectations. Few, if any, achieve it all, my friends.
I think about the suffering of those departed who achieved enviable wealth and fame momentarily before falling out of this place. Elvis, John Belushi, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Whitney Houston and on it goes. That list is a remarkably long one. Their own personal challenges here proved formidable and too soon fatal.
My point today is that to envy one another or wish we could be living a different life is a tragic waste of what relatively little valuable time we're allotted. If our lives aren't what we wished or wanted them to be, we still have the freedom (for now, anyway) to completely change them. With willpower, we can still finish our education, pursue our dreams, drop 75 pounds, or change our attitude for as long as health allows.
This truth screams at us daily from all directions. It's even inscribed on a simple plaque my daughter, Anna, has kept for years. It reads: "A fulfilling life is not about surviving the storms but by learning how to dance in the rain."
The storms are inevitable. So it's solely up to us to learn how to make the best of even the worst of times. Another similar reminder I appreciate says that while we can't change the direction the wind blows, we can (and are well-advised) to adjust our own sails. Simple-minded "placitudes (yeah, my word)?" Maybe. That's one way to view such quips. Yet the message behind them is true: Despite the challenges, in large measure we retain the ability to regain our footing and get on with striving to create the kind of life we still envision for ourselves.
Here one undeniable related platitude for you in case you didn't care for those two: "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade."
I once read something that struck me as profoundly true. It said there's no meaningful change in life without conflict and risk. There is pain of some form caused by a conflict that changes our goals and directions. Those much wiser than me say positive change often occurs when we choose to let go of the accumulated resentments, anger, judgments and envies that have stunted and sidetracked growth and potential.
Odd to fathom something as seemingly simple as releasing the "gradu" we cling to in our hearts and minds is basically what's required to improve it dramatically.
OK, I'm all through with my latest installment that I'll call reflective pontifications over coffee.
Oh wait, one more. Should we finally live long enough, many of us come to realize that if grass seems so much plusher and greener on the other side of our fence, it's for certain the neighbor's water bill also is lots higher.
Much at stake
It's finally vote your beliefs day! And for those who haven't voted early this year, I can't encourage you strongly enough to take several minutes and make your voice heard. There most definitely are some bold-color choices that have separated candidates this primary season.
An important one for me has been the so-called private-option Medicaid plan (which I view as merely a thinly veiled extension of the wildly unpopular Obamacare) that our state legislature wrestled and re-wrestled and re-re-wrestled with until abundant campaign contributions finally got it pushed through with a whole one vote to spare.
If you are a fan of this direction of government involvement, you will want to back the candidates who helped see the private option installed in Arkansas while 24 other states wisely opted out of the Medicaid expansion. (Probably not enough PAC contributions in those states. How sad, eh?)
If not, there are candidates for our state legislature who clearly oppose the private option.
Whatever your pleasure and views for our future, please find out where your candidate stands on the issues and invest the time to cast a vote today.
------------v------------
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial on 05/20/2014