Each of us must endure the entire cycle from beginning to end. There is no way out. – Gore Vidal, Creation
Both this author and this book have appeared numerous times in this feature so we won’t bore you with the usual introductory paragraph. Their regular appearances here are hardly the Upset of the Year. We’ve read Creation several times and though we don’t have the exact figure, it has contributed more quotes to our personal quotebook than any other book. For our money Vidal has always done a brilliant job of providing insights into the behaviors, traits and foibles that construct our human experience, which is what you pay us writers to do.
Each of us must endure the entire cycle from beginning to end…
We had no choice when our lives would start and unless we end it ourselves or are issued an execution date we have no idea when it will end, either. It could end tomorrow or years from now.
But while we had little choice about when our cycle began or when it will end, we have a great influence as to what happens in between. We can merely endure, or we can flourish. To an extent that surprises some, the choice is ours.
Now some, of course, have little choice in the matter. Some are born into lives whose only option is enduring, where mere survival is a daily struggle, where tomorrow sometimes feels like next year. Some, too, are born with no chance. They die shortly after birth or are born into circumstances where they have no chance for anything but misery. It’s the way the world is built.
If you are reading this, however, you are not one of these people. The 24 hours we have each day are ours to do with as we please. We had a beginning and we will have an end and in between we have a blank canvas to fill and what goes on that canvas is mostly our call: what we get out of life depends on the work we put into it.
There is no way out…
Those who wander around the Gobi Desert never climb Mount Everest, so it is incumbent on us to make our time serve us while we are on this planet. We must have the wisdom to know what we are meant to do, the courage to go and do it and the patience to see it through to our desired end. Anything less is timed squandered, a life endured and not lived.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock.
