Seventy days. That’s how long it’s been since this strange new season began.
That feels like a significant marker. 70 days into a crisis unprecedented in our lifetime. It feels like a moment to remind ourselves of some things as we navigate the still-shifting sands of our new normal –
“Hope is not a strategy.” It’s an old adage used in military, business and political spheres (as well as the latest Mission Impossible movie).
It’s true. Hope alone won’t get you where you want to go. You need to plan and execute. Hope is not a strategy.
But you can be strategic about hope.
I went to a wake recently. I didn’t know the deceased, but she was loved by someone I love.
It’s all really just people, in the end, isn’t it? The people you impact up close through your relationships, and the people you impact either directly or indirectly through your vocation.
It’s all people, and their lives that we’re either adding to or detracting from.
It’s all people, which seems simple when you boil it down to that. Except that it’s all people, which means it’s not simple at all. None of it.
What’s the point in living a deliberate life? Are there certain approaches to life, which, if carefully crafted into the fabric of our lives, will ultimately leave us more satisfied when it comes time to look back over our days?
I believe there are. I believe that woven throughout our shared human experience, there are certain components that make up a life well lived, and we see them surface again and again in our great thinkers, art, and science.
One of the best comedy ensemble tv shows of the last couple of decades is ‘The Office’, and one of the best characters of the show is the manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, Michael Scott, played to perfection by Steve Carell. What makes Michael so awkwardly, cringingly hilarious to watch is his complete and total lack of self-awareness.
