Posted on 08/01/2002 8:09:47 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Let me be the first to say that I have absolutely no idea how life operates. I know total idiots — folks who can barely tie their own shoes and think dogfood is made from dogs — who are multi-millionaires. I know incredibly talented people, some with vast education and ability, who stock the shelves at Wal-Mart with gerbil food and personal adult under-garments. Life rarely makes sense, and it is even more rarely equitable. Frankly, much of a person's lot in life has to do with pure dumb luck. While ability and brains may be an important and contributing element, all the competence and ambition in the world will get you nowhere without that accident of birth, lucky break, surprise occurrence or the unexpected notice of a highly placed person of power who decides to offer a chance.
I've seen this phenomenon too many times, both in the positive and negative sense, and in too many locales to ever believe otherwise. I admit there may be exceptions to the rule, but they are scarce as hen's teeth,
And so...let's put an end once and for all to that age old whine that "life's not fair." Of course it's not fair; I think I knew that by about age six. Moreover, it can't be made fair, despite what the politicians and social workers would have you believe. Sometimes opportunity kicks open the door and sits down for supper, picking its teeth and belching profusely. Sometimes it stays home watching re-runs of Gomer Pyle, slurping margaritas and scratching itself. All men may be created equal, but equality pretty much ends at conception. After that, you're on your own.
Thus, if you accept Marr's Theorem #229 (that being..."the hand of fate is attached to the arm of a card shark") you can dispense with this fair/not fair nonsense and realize that you probably won't win the lottery, pen a best-seller or enjoy Julia Robert's undying affection after rescuing her from a burning building. This is not to say that such things won't happen — the laws of statistical coincidence state that at some time or another — in one form or another — they undoubtedly will. They'll just happen to someone else.
If that strikes you as a somewhat gloomy world-view, then please prepare to admit your premature excogitation. The trick to having a good ride lies not in contemplating the agonies of a life lived in the perpetual rut of mediocrity. Rather, it consists of constructing your own definition of success, failure, ambition and luck. The definitions are intrinsic, and if you believe them truly, they stand invulnerable to the slings, arrows, attitudes and opinions of both society and dissenting individuals. You see...life is not only a game, it's your game. Play it as you will and make your own rules. The rules of others do not apply.
A person can re-invent themselves in myriad forms (heck...I've done it at least four or five times...hillbilly, scholar, beach bum, writer, mountain goat...take your pick) and will likely do so a few more times before the game is through. The reason is this; that which gives you goose bumps today may leave you flatter than a flitter tomorrow. Life is many things, but it's only static if you so wish it to be. There may be aspects of your life you do not enjoy — aspects which are unpleasant and unavoidable via circumstance and necessity — but keep in mind that these things are not the end all/be all of one's existence. They are only tasks that must be completed before you get back to living.
The point is this. To live, and live with joy, you have to have something (or several somethings) that trip your trigger. As an old friend, now long gone, once told me, "you have to have something to believe in, you have to have something to look forward to, you have to have something to love." If I did needlepoint I'd put that on my wall, for it is both powerful and true. What it means, I think, is that effort, anticipation and expectation are at least as important as results.
I'll use myself as an example, partly because I can't think of another one right now and partly because it applies quite well. I really make very little money from writing (it's a poor man's game) however I get an electric jolt from each new thought or phrase or perspective. I will likely never achieve widespread fame or fortune (I'm not that good) but it is the effort that makes me happy, the setting down of words — not the compensation thereof — that provides the challenge and sends me into a state of quiet euphoria. I don't do it for the dough, I do it because it makes me smile.
And it's the same no matter if you are a doctor, lawyer, butcher, baker or dynamite maker. It's not what you get for what you do that's important, it's that you love what you do for its own sake.
Nothing in life is fair — such is a given — but the smiling ones realize that everything in life is fair game.
Because they found a way to provide a product or service that the public was willing to pay them a lot of money for. Examples: Software developers, inventors.
I know incredibly talented people, some with vast education and ability, who stock the shelves at Wal-Mart with gerbil food and personal adult under-garments.
Because they have not yet found a way to provide a product or service that the public is willing to pay them a lot of money for. Examples: Liberal arts PhD graduates, classical musicians.
This isn't that hard, and has nothing to do with "fairness".
I will happily swop hard work and intelligence for blind luck anyday.
Cheers Tony
and Software Engineers.
Cheers Tony Bitter me not at all.
A former chief of mine used to remark, "If you wanted 'fair' you should have joined the Boy Scouts."
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