I am not sure whether I am winding down this blog or just going through a period where I post fewer blog entries. I am sure that I am slacking off a bit and am not too concerned about it. However, in general I honor and encourage both industry and enthusiasm. I am therefore posting a Facebook about perseverance and the triumph over apathy even as I myself may be a bit more apathetic than usual.
Of course in theory many of us will starve if we don’t get out of bed. But while a minority of people get paid for staying in bed in some sense or another — none of us (that I know of) get paid much just for getting out of bed. Still, we sort of know that our survival chances are statistically better if we get out of bed. Is it that statistical analysis which gets folks out of bed in the morning?
Staying in bed is at worst a very low risk and low pain way of channeling self destructive tendencies. In bed we find time to think and dream of a path to a better future. So why not just stay in bed?
Doctors have given orders for complete bed rest a vast number of times in history. If such behavior was right for their patients why not for us this morning?
There are serious cases of torture and homicide that go unreported, a worldwide web of unregulated slavery, land being deforested and turned to desert, species disappearing and millions of people starve. Very few of us will effectively address these problems in whatever it is we do each day. On the other hand in our bed we may feel we are doing nobody much harm. If we are fortunate, we may either have the consolations of the newlywed or at least the memory of such consolations in our beds. Why not just stay in these havens and burn less fuel moving around?
I have a pretty dark view of the world over all and I feel largely unable to help those I care about to make a better passage through this cruel world, Yet I am not in bed as I type this. If I listed all the bad things I have found waiting for me in the non-bed cosmos it would make this a book instead of a note. Yet out of bed I roll.
I think a lot of us get out of bed, pay taxes, work, get married, go to worship services, vote and shave because, whether we are Christians or not we sort of believe the teaching that hope is a theological virtue. We sort of know that humans are meant to try, to struggle, to love and to laugh even in the darkest times. We sort of hum along to songs like “Anyway” sung by Martina Mcbride, “The Impossible Dream” from Man from La Mancha and even tunes as different as Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” and George Michael’s “Gotta have Faith”. We may not see very many good options but we proceed not only out of fear or inertia but partly out of courage.
I believe that in every human I have met there is a bit of a fool, an oaf, a coward and a scoundrel. I have known lots of people I would readily identify as very bad folks. Yet I would encourage you to remember that next time you drag yourself out of bed to meet the challenges of the day you have my vote for hero of the day. Likely at least part of what gets you going every morning is that part of you which is a hero self daring to do the right regardless of the cost. It probably isn’t most of who you are, but if your first thought is usually “Arrghuuuuhhhhhmmmm–****—moorning” then maybe remembering the hero in there will help a little bit. I bet he or she is right there somewhere pushing those feet to the floor.
End of Facebook Note–
I wish all of ye few, ye brave, ye proud — ye readers — a good day out in the big world. I am feeling weary but am still sort of here.
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