Well it's the beginning of the year and from this point on I will attempt to frequent this site enough that it leaves a true trail of where my heart and mind are during any particular moment in time.
Here is my question:
Now I could attempt to try to be deep and say every second of everyday I ask myself this question, but if I allow honesty to prevail, I tend to only ask myself this question when I get a little down or misplaced in my thoughts, which for some reason has been at least once a day but ok, ok I’m sorry here is the question: Is the road to greatness; hardship and strife, struggles and pain, hard work and discipline, or is all of that stuff just stuff and life issues those delightful treats to all its ravenous customers that approach this Super Wal-mart we call life? Greatness, failure and what lies between get divvied out all the same, each person has their opportunity to walk down aisle four and grab a few boxes of success. Life much like Wal-mart doesn’t have coupons and just as rarely has a buy one get one free anything, so if you need it, you better have the yenom (money backwards) to buy it.
Side bar: I choose to say yenom every now and again because money sometimes sounds so nasty when you say it and don’t have it.
Every Victor of success that means something to me seems to have this rags to riches story that encourages most not to give up on their dreams simply because their circumstances don’t seem favorable, but I can’t possibly believe that every person with crappy conditions becomes a Thurgood or a Martin, some folks just have to be a Pookie or a RayRay and I worry that maybe I’m a Pookie or a RayRay and not a Cornell or a Fredrick. I mean I’m sure Pookie had friends that believed in him, that encouraged him, and made him believe his dreams wouldn’t fall short of reality. He most likely had a girlfriend that said she’d never give up on him or let me him down either. I know for sure RayRay’s homeboy’s didn’t slip looking out for him every once in a whiled because they knew when that boy made it, everybody was straight, but what if they amount to nothing. Well ok, maybe not ‘nothing’ but less than what their dreams said they’d be, have they failed? Was their life not as hard as it needed to be for their story to be significant enough to know? I hear it from so many, that their struggle was worth it but I wonder how many ambitious, determined individuals that chase after their dreams end up standing outside of that store that you frequent requesting change from a person that chose to accept life just the way it came, without imbuing any of their own aspirations in it anywhere? Is that the life I should have chose, the one where I’m unhappy but I can pay the bills, take care of myself, and God Willing wake up the next morning and drag myself through it once again?
Don't Be A Pawn, Be The One They Remember Putting People In Checkmate! Life is like chess think it out before you move!
3 comments:
Disclaimer: This is all completely unedited and includes immediate reaction to the blog. However, I would love to discuss further.
This is a question I've struggled with as well, although it increased some since I've been in law school...Wondering if I'm really meant to be somebody great or if all the encouragement and support and well wishes of others were wasted on me...However, when I think long enough I know that I can't be satisfied unless I try to do all this. I wouldn't want to just live and only pay the bills without having tried to accomplish my dreams and reach some goals....That being said, I don't believe that the lives of Pookie and Ray Ray are the worst kind of lives to live. It's a blessing to have the strength to get up and go to work, to have job security and to be able to support myself and my family. If I have reached for the goals I set for myself and put everything I have into it, but failed at all of it, I could live that 'regular' life and be happy that I did try...I think failure is never trying for more; it is in not knowing how to be content with your blessings and how to be resourceful and use those things you have been given...I work toward greatness step by step, but know that it could all be taken away in a moment. I am learning to be content with me.
Just a small comment regarding your last statement, and tying in what I feel about the blog. (This is John, by the way.)
In life, you can't help whether you are a pawn or a knight or even a King. You are born into whatever piece you are meant to play. However, proper use of power, regardless how much or little you have, can lead you to change positions in life or even be content and successful at your current position. (Just as a side note, if the pawn travels far enough across the board, it can be exchanged for a higher piece, thus changing its position in life.)
With that said, alot of people seem to tell their hardships that they encountered before they get to their successes because they usually are the ones who started out as pawns and worked their way up to more. (None of the folks you mentioned in the blog were well-to-do before they became notable. They had to earn it.) Likewise, many people who are KINGS AND QUEENS to start, end up losing power and subsequently, are taking off the board altogether. (Think Mike Vick, Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire, Enron, etc.)
Now what I will say is this...there is no way for EVERYONE to be successful, just like you can rarely get a checkmate with ALL pieces still on the board. It happens in every society, but it happens. Somebody will always be above and beneath you, regardless of how hard you try to excel, or how far down the ladder you slide. What we have to do is understand where we started in life, be content with the fact that we have to work harder to get to a better status, and then go from there. You ultimately can control whether you are successful or not, but that is because there is a substantial amount of people who simply won't take that option, allowing room for you at the top.
Funny...or should I say ironic that I just had this discussion yesterday. I learned of someone who made $1.8 million per year. He is not a doctor who saves lives each and every day, nor a school teacher who is shaping and molding the minds of tomorrow, but the president of a cell phone company. WOW...that's all I could say. Was he a Ray-Ray who worked his way up from the bottom? Struggling, toiling, kissing butt and sucking up until he owned his own jet, or was he just in the right place, at the right time, with ALL the right connections...who knows? All that truly matters now is that-HE'S THERE. Thus, it doesn't matter what it takes- I just know that I have to make it. Simply a student in pharmacy school now, but one day, an industry pharmacist I'll be...but even more and much more important- a philanthropist I'll be...opening community outreach centers and learning advancement centers for illiterate adults and children alike. So...to be better, you have to do better. You have to aspire to be more than mediocre, for in my opinion- mediocrity IS failure. After all, we have to be the change that we wish to see in the world;then, and only then, will our true purpose in life be complete. So everyday I visualize myself as a successful leader, no matter where I am right now because that IS WHAT I AM and what I ALWAYS will be...Besides, if I am a leader, I can help the Pookies and Ray-Rays of tomorrow so that they can help themselves, and ultimately help someone else. Hopefully this will end the "crabs in a barrel" mentality, making everyone and everything better off...just something to think about...
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