You Just Have to Take It

At the beginning of every story, there is a point at which we realize that if something doesn’t change, the hero will die. Often, this is a figurative kind of death more than a literal death, but the hero also comes to the realization and makes the necessary change that takes us into the meat of the story. That makes for interesting storytelling, but so often we find that life isn’t that way. How often do we come to that point in life where we feel we have the weight of the world on our shoulders and if something doesn’t change we’ll surely die under the load. But unlike the heroes of our stories, we don’t often have the option of choosing to change things. It will surely kill us.

But the thing about real life is that when you come to the realization that we’re on the verge of death and it is hopeless, we also come to the realization that death isn’t an option. Oh, death will come soon enough, but no matter how much junk life dumps on you, you don’t have the option of giving up. No matter how bad things seem now and no matter how bad they might get, you have to take it. There’s no option to refuse to participate. You’ve heard of the straw that broke the camel’s back, but life doesn’t give us the option of a broken back. No matter how many straws life loads on us, we have to take it. No matter how hopeless it might seem, we have to keep going because there is no other choice.

Life is like trudging through a cold rain shower. Each drop will chill you to the bone, but there’s nothing you can do about it. As miserable as it may make you feel, you just keep going because there isn’t another option.