None of us wanted to be the first to die, so we all died. – Jackie Kashian
Jackie Kashian is an American comedienne. Originally from Milwaukee, she now lives in Los Angeles and has been a practicing comedienne since 1986, with the usual appearances, awards and accolades funny people of her ilk receive over their careers. Today’s thought comes from a funny bit about her Armenian grandmother talking about a genocide she survived. They were held captive by some Turks, but there was only one Turk for a couple of hundred prisoners and Jackie, then a kid, asked not unreasonably why everyone didn’t just go and tackle the guard and kill him, which led to today’s Thought. It is every artist’s duty to say what they feel needs to be said every time they ply their trade, be they a sculptor, a writer or a performer and when an artist manages to cut right to the heart of our human experience, like Ms Kashion did here, it is the summit of what creating is about.
We’re fortunate in America to have a stable, if somewhat dysfunctional, government and do not have to worry about literally being the first to die in a revolution, but today’s Thought has been true since time immemorial: revolutions rise and fall, succeed and fail, depending on whether or not someone has been willing to be the first to die in order that others might flourish.
Similarly, our lives rise and fall, succeed and fail, depending on whether or not our days live or die. Our lives are a collection of days that turn into years and years that turn into lifetimes and if we are going to have a worthwhile life we must get the most out of these days. We cannot let any day be the first to die.
Days die when we are not on our path when we are not living the life we were meant to live. If we let one day die others will follow and before you know it we have a collection of dead years, time when we haven’t followed our hearts and trusted our instincts. Our hearts will tell us where to go and our instincts will tell us how to get there.
We deserve better than a squandered life. Each of us has a duty to make our time serve us, each of us has a purpose and as we say every hour on the hour here it doesn’t really matter what that purpose is. All that matters is it comes from deep inside us.
We must have the courage to make every day live. We cannot let one day die.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Gaylon began stockpiling quotes in 1988.
