Saturday, September 10, 2011

Finding a resting spot

We will be the first to tell you, sitting round is hard work. We have all heard about the folks who work 30, or 40 years before they retire. Or the person who is released from prison after 15 or 20 years. In a way they are so very similar. Both have a lot in common.
No, they aren't criminals. We would like to think that after being incarcerated for 20 years the majority of people would not readily jump back into a life of crime. Nor would retirees look at criminal activities as a means of supplementing their income.
Rather, both groups have left one environment in which they were so very familar and entered into new and unknown world. A world that is suddenly full of unstructured time and wide open space. After years of doing what had been expected and demanded they now have choices. After serving authority, they are now faced with being the master of their own destiny, no longer seeking approval or the consent of another.
The question before these people is "What should I do now?"
We imagine there is some degree of fear involved. Such uncertainty, that it paralyzes a person. This may be the metaphor that best describes our current status.
For us, being on the road is as close as we will ever come to looking at the world from space. That feeling of awe and inspiration one gets when you realize the world is so much bigger than any fears you could ever have. That people are so insignificant, when the "diversity" is the answer to the age old question "Why am I here?"
SO while we wait out the days until 2013, we try to take in the wonder that makes life worth appreciating. We have the time to realize (again) that life is indeed more than the sum of our own existence.
This is the 10th anniversary of the taking down of the Twin Towers on 9-11. This weekend will be full of memorials to those who died, both civilians and those who fought to rescue others. Rememberance of the passengers on Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania before it could get to its final destination. We try not to see this as a time for mourning, but as a time of celebration. A celebration of love, dedication and honor. A time when we hold up life as a precious moment we experience in too short a period when it is measured against the infinity of time.
Someone once said that if you wanted to measure the span of anything against the concept of time, take a roll of toliet paper and have a friend hold one end and you walk as the roll is unraveled. Now look at the roll of toliet paper stretched across the ground. As you consider its length and you compare it to other objects, realize this---That time is infinately longer than that roll--that the roll would only represent a mere fraction of time as we know it. So to is the length of pour lives--compared to infinity--our exsistence isn't even a blip on the map.
So we need to get over ourselves and accept the fact we are not important enough for the world to bother with us. We need not be concerned with what others think of us, and the best we can hope for is to be content in all we do and love one another.

For all those whose dreams have ended prematurely, we remember you and honor your contributions.

The Lokomotiv ice hockey team

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