Hiding in Plain Sight

LIFE’S TOUGH 

The CHALLENGES are formidable,

the RESPONSIBILITIES awesome,

the EXPECTATIONS out-of-sight, and

TIME is always too short for what we want and need to do.

To protect ourselves from the vicissitudes of life, we often hide in variably constructed “shells” – each of us having our own personal mode of sheltering from the storms. 

·         Some of us busy ourselves to exhaustion in trivial pursuits. 

·         Shop-a-holics shop.

·         Alcoholics hide in a bottle.

·         Drug addicts mind-travel to unpredictable places as far from the real world as possible.

·         “Millennials” do video games, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube surfing.  

·         Work-a-holics submerse themselves in work.

·         Dogged “homemakers” immerse themselves in cooking, sewing, cleaning, etc.

·         Farmers immerse themselves in farming.

·         Writers immerse themselves in writing.

·         Politicians – well, politicians hide behind anything and everything, including a whole lot of smoke screens!

·         Increasing numbers of folks are getting “hooked” on exercise.

·         Some only live and breathe for the next bingo game, soap opera, or sports event.

·         Some hide behind excuses, explanations, and trumped up calamities.

·         Some are overcome by “family obligations”.

·         Significant numbers immerse themselves in community service activities.

·         “Professional students” escape into the ivory towers of academia.

·         The numbers hiding in a world of made-up fantasy are unknown, but are likely legion.

Some of these “hiding places” and practices are patently unsustainable and potentially devastating, while others can have very positive outcomes.  An over-achieving work-a-holic can literally change the world (ala, Steve Jobs, Jonas Salk or Madame Curie) and a dogged homemaker can provide a haven of respite for family and friends. 

However, it’s worthwhile – and very likely important – to take periodic inventory of our hiding places and practices to determine how well things are working and toward what probable or possible ends. 

The truly fortunate are those who emerge from the fray with sufficient capacitization and self-efficacy to take on the world as it comes – “sheltered” by their own … and their surrounding “village’s” … ability to cope with life’s vicissitudes and exigencies head on. 

Let’s immerse (“shell”) ourselves in the very best we know (worthy challenges) and can possibly muster (gain the capacity) toward the greatest good (most legitimate) we can fathom, as well armed (efficacious) as possible.  Quartermaster