When I was born in 1956, the 2nd World War had only been over for 11 years. So the society was still imbued with the concept of the hero. The very first show I watched on television when I was 6 years old, my parents were the first people in our village to get a television. We were rich. Of course, we weren’t, but that’s what everyone perceived it to be.
A television? Remarkable. And my mother was a bit authoritarian and we were allowed to watch 2 shows. The Lone Ranger, about a lawman who wore a mask and he had an assistant who was an Indian and they they fought the bad cowboys, if you will, the bad people in the West, and the Jetsons about the future. But the lone ranger was just filled with the concept of the hero.
And what does a hero do? Well, a hero, of course, overcomes danger for sure, but his basic role is to never ever ever ever give up. And I think that’s the lesson of all of this hero worship is that life is hard. If we really want to succeed in life, we have to, at some point, answer those three questions. We often talk about, why am I here?
What’s my mission? What happens when I leave here? So the second one, second point, what’s my mission? We have to get down we have to get down to it, of course, and that requires effort. We try something, it fails.
Perhaps we have a degree in international trade, we get a job and we find out that I’m not that good at being a salesman, for instance. I’m not that good at international trade. I’m good at other things, whatever that may be. So my first attempt is failed, so I must try again. And let’s say that fails too.
I must try again. I must never give up. Right? And I think herein lies the difficulty of the modern era. We are, to a certain extent, imbued with failure all around us.
Many people seemingly fail because the vast majority of human beings are unhappy. And how could that possibly be so when they have material success? They have money. They’re perhaps nice looking, etcetera, etcetera. Well, many times, once again, it’s because to succeed at you is hard.
You must never give up. You must try it, whatever that is, again and again and again. So recently, I was reading something about the Alamo. This was supposedly a group of Texans who fought off who tried to fight off the Mexican army under Santa Ana and they failed. And they were all killed to a man.
So there was this cry, remember the Alamo. And they were perceived as heroes. Now, hopefully, in the modern world, we’re going to give up on war, but we are still going to have to be heroic to the self. There’s no question at all. And if we’re not as men, I think many times we do suffer, don’t we?
So once we begin our life and we wake up, we wake up at 20 years old, we achieve consciousness, we perhaps get our notebook, and we begin to write to ourselves to understand who we are, then we must embark on a journey. And, you know, like any journey, any great voyage, you don’t know where it’s going for sure. You think you know, sort of. Christopher Columbus, for example, was on his way to India and North America got in the way. That enormous landmass when he hit Hispaniola, the island.
Right? He was shocked. What’s going on here? Where’s India? They didn’t know, but they never gave up.
They never ran back to Europe and said, oh, poor us. We’ve tried and we failed. They eventually populated all of North, South, and Central America. And many people say unfairly because they killed tens of thousands of indigenous people, of course, along the way. But the basic idea was that we aren’t going to give up.
We’re going to keep trying. So when it comes down to the humble me with my notebook and my anxiety and my frustration, I’m going to get up every day. What’s the old saying? No matter how you feel, wake up, stand up, clean up, show up. Never ever ever give up.
And here in lies the question, I think, in a way, in the modern era. Why do so many people seemingly not believe that their life is an enormous adventure? They try to seek safety. I know in many countries, the civil service exams are filled with people that are trying to get a government or a bureaucratic job. Now there’s nothing wrong, of course, with working for the state or a perhaps a state owned corporation, but that’s for a while.
You’ll never be free if you’re not on your own in some capacity, in some career. You just won’t and you will suffer because human beings, especially men, we are brave. At least we want to overcome all these kinds of challenges that we’re faced with on a daily basis and we want to succeed. And And if that’s taken away from us or we take it away ourselves because we’re afraid or perhaps we’re thinking of safety or perhaps we’re married to someone who’s fearful, therefore, she doesn’t want to encourage us to go forward, you know, and have a career that’s somewhat risky, but has a huge benefit at the end, potentially, then we kind of acquiesce. And we live a life of quiet resentment, don’t we?
So what can we do? Well, I think to a very large extent, if we view life as this great journey, right, then it becomes somewhat interesting, and we can see where it eventually takes us. Right? Where does it go? What can we see?
And think if we open a book, a book about a great man, we will see that that great man suffered tremendously. It wasn’t easy for him. Really, it wasn’t. He had many, many losses, a lot of pain, but eventually, he was lucky enough to overcome his frustration and succeed at least in part at least in part. Not always, but at least in part.
And if he didn’t succeed, he died along the way in the journey. Right? And I think the great historical statement that comes down to us is the voyage of Odysseus when he wants to return home. It takes him eventually 20 years 20 years in the story to get back to his beloved. And, eventually, he does.
A tale of an individual who can overcome everything. So you know what they say. You know what they say. To be brave, never ever ever give up and think. Just think.
Critical thinking is great and critical thinking is, of course, necessary. You take care. Never give up. God bless. Bye bye.