Sometimes in life you find yourself backed into a corner, armed with nothing more than a butter knife and a waning candle for light. A wretched black beast is snarling at you, its fangs seething with hunger for your soul.
These are the situations we must overcome in order to permanently alter the course of our life. And this is a situation I find myself in right now: Buried in debt, wholly dependent on one authoritarian source of income in a small town with no other opportunities, kids settled into private school because the public alternative is a pedagogic disaster.
While most may say I should just be grateful for my health, my family, my neighbors and good, simple life, I’m more driven than that. There is a place for people like me who see beyond the everyday cycles and rhythms, and that place is somewhere far away, physically and metaphorically (how far would have Obama gotten had he stayed in Honolulu — maybe private practice lawyer?).
Right now I have not much more than my intent to get though this and my will to make it happen. Maintaining that is important, because if that gets lost, so does everything else.
But there’s something else, too, something deeper and beyond individual capacity, and that’s faith in what’s to come. Belief that it’s not our destiny to merely live this life, that perhaps something equally determined is travelling towards us. Is major epiphany imminent?
Whether it is or not, work must be done and vigilance maintained. Surely being totally focused, determined and efficient will pay off at the right moment.