Who has not thought – at some point – about running away?
·
… from oppression …
·
… from boredom …
·
… from constraint …
·
… from inextricable calamity
·
… from clamoring, cloying, conscriptive
dependencies …
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”
Rhett Butler to
Scarlett O’Hara
Gone With The Wind
And who, given half a chance, does not wish to run away from
a grave mistake – or two or three? How
about away from oppressive indebtedness?
Life has a way of “piling up”, and running away seems to be
constitutively in our blood. Besides
avoiding oppression, we want unencumbered adventure and stimulation without the
burden of accountability or having to mop up after ourselves.
Fortunate
is the person who has the wherewithal plus a clear path to run TOWARD something
of intrinsic and lasting value!
“Running away” starts early and takes many different forms,
beginning with the engagement of fantasy.
Television, movies, video games and the internet robustly support and
sustain fantasy.
Then there are drugs and alcohol … particularly beyond the
point that our invincible Superman underwear stops working.
We’d have to include “comfort foods” here, as well; nobody
or nothing can legitimately infringe on us while we’re performing basic life
functions.
Muriel was the designated top
associate in the Dean’s Office at the new medical school. Building a whole new enterprise to a point of
highest national standards was a tough business and Muriel got stressed out a
lot. The other female staff eventually
figured out that Muriel was spending an inordinate amount of time in the Ladies’
Room doing crossword puzzles!
But running away is not always black or white /\ Yin or
Yang. Yin/Yang alternatives abound,
short reprieves are generally all that’s needed to get us back on a productive
track, and some of them can actually be regenerative.
Exercise is one such alternative. A sincere and sacrificial attempt to “better
oneself” is difficult to fault. The
endorphin “rush”, the aura of “being focused on task”, the increased fitness
and physical capacity, the improved body image, and the overall sense of
wellbeing are enviable by-products. This
does not excuse, however, completing one’s formal education or becoming better
armed for career advancement or becoming more engaged in community service, or
being productively engaged in family affairs.
Hamilton was an upper-class
fraternity brother who finally figured it out, acknowledging that the semesters
he played intramural football were his academically best; he was too tired to
do anything but study during his otherwise unscheduled time!
Work-a-holism has been lampooned for ages – particularly by those
with lucrative careers built on telling people they don’t have to work so hard. But burying oneself in generative lifework beats
sitting in a bar or warming a park bench with a hard luck story any time. And it can have some amazingly positive
consequences.
“One must learn to translate desperate need and strong feelings
into useful labor.”
Jim Rohn
Yoga/spiritual engagement/meditation is the preferred
alternative for many – where running away from the stress of life is actually a
productive form of “centering down”.
Unlikely champions – people who start out life in some
incredible valley of misfortune yet who rise to the top of their chosen field of
endeavor – are engaged in ceaseless running … both running away from any and
all they have been or do not want to be and
running toward their own “unreachable star”.
To many, such sacrificial running is completely
unnecessary. But keep running we
must! A month from now, a year from now,
5-10-20 years from now, we’re going to have to be at very different places than
we are today. Whether it’s running away
from today, here and now or running toward brighter tomorrows or both, we need
to keep moving in the most positive direction possible.
Final Points to Ponder
We can’t always run away.
More times than not, we’ve got to stand our ground and fight our way through
thick and thin to a, hopefully, better end.
But respite is important when the stress and heat get too intense. Thus, we need to cultivate our own best
practice/best outcome system of clearing the playing field to make a better way
for full-bore, total intentional engagement.
Quartermaster
“The blows that a life of self-control
Spares to strike for the common good,
That day, giving a loose to my soul,
I spend on the unimportant wood.”
“Two Tramps in Mud
Time
Robert Frost
