One of the most difficult things I find with swimming is staying afloat. A lot of energy and effort goes into keeping your head above water and your body in constant motion. In a big wide ocean, there’s no such thing as rest or pause. Stop treading water and you’ll start to drown. Forget to rise for air and you’ll suffocate. Being in water is a constant battle - and where do you find the resources to continue fighting?

But somehow… you do. When it’s a question of life or death, most of us, though not all of us, will pull through, though not all the time. We’ll summon the energy within, rally the spirit and drag ourselves, step by step, to emerge, though scathed and scarred, into the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re confronted by challenges and obstacles throughout life, and miraculously, most of us overcome them, if only to continue living until the next one comes along.

I’ve heard it said many times, and have repeated it many times myself, that what doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger. The question is: to what aim? Why are we being made stronger? Do we want to be stronger? For what purpose are we stronger?

If we believe in the idea of divine guidance and intervention, even at a minimal level, we might believe that every life experience is in some way (intentionally) functional for some other experience down the line. Every challenge makes us stronger for the next one that will come along. Every obstacle that is overcome enables us to scale the higher one down the road. Every pain that is suffered raises the threshold that we can endure…

And therein lies the nub of this logic. If the last five years are anything to go by, where each year has proven to be successively more challenging and painful, why would anyone want to continue being stronger, if all being stronger promises is yet more obstacles, more challenges and most of all, more pain. Why not check out now while we’re ahead?

Posted on February 2nd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Notable: Personal