When is being good good enough? When can we say that we have done our share? When can we rest on our proverbial laurels? When is the struggle over and the time just to live, to be, at hand? When is being good good enough?
It seems the answer is never.
But it also seems, at least to me, that in our time, we’ve misunderstood the philosophers and theologians of old when we insist that we must always be striving. We hear their exhortations as absolutist statements with perfection as the elusive runner’s tape before us, the goal post ever moved with enough never being quite, well, enough.
Why is that, I wonder?
Why do so many of us humans, at least here in the northern part of the western hemisphere, impose upon ourselves and others the nefarious idea that in order to attain happiness, there must always be the possibility of more?
Life is not an assembly line and human productivity (whatever that means) was never intended to be measured by the corporate bottom-line mentality.
I think what I hear in the echoes of time is not the call to always strive, but to simply recognize that the work will never be finished, which is not the same thing at all. In fact, it’s the opposite: in recognizing that the work that I’m called to will never be finished, am I not freed to slow down a bit, recognizing that there is always work to be done, but there is also always play to be had as well? The only real reason to hurry is the mistaken belief that the work can be finished, the goal can be attained, as if we were rushing towards the end of something.
Who wants to do that?
When is good good enough?
Right now.
It seems the answer is never.
But it also seems, at least to me, that in our time, we’ve misunderstood the philosophers and theologians of old when we insist that we must always be striving. We hear their exhortations as absolutist statements with perfection as the elusive runner’s tape before us, the goal post ever moved with enough never being quite, well, enough.
Why is that, I wonder?
Why do so many of us humans, at least here in the northern part of the western hemisphere, impose upon ourselves and others the nefarious idea that in order to attain happiness, there must always be the possibility of more?
Life is not an assembly line and human productivity (whatever that means) was never intended to be measured by the corporate bottom-line mentality.
I think what I hear in the echoes of time is not the call to always strive, but to simply recognize that the work will never be finished, which is not the same thing at all. In fact, it’s the opposite: in recognizing that the work that I’m called to will never be finished, am I not freed to slow down a bit, recognizing that there is always work to be done, but there is also always play to be had as well? The only real reason to hurry is the mistaken belief that the work can be finished, the goal can be attained, as if we were rushing towards the end of something.
Who wants to do that?
When is good good enough?
Right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment