We grow up wanting success. We almost expect it! As we enter adulthood with all the hopes of youth, we set out to live a good life and make a difference to the world. But in reality, life is hard. Earning a living can be a daily struggle. Hours are cut. The rent is due. The car breaks down. With so many bills to pay, it can be difficult to make ends meet. Perhaps we take a second job to help ease the pressure. We may find ourselves walking the streets at night delivering advertising fliers. Low pay, but every dollar helps.
Busy lives don't offer much time for reflection. But occasionally we may find ourselves with a few spare minutes. Some precious time to ponder the question, does any of this really matter?
As we come to realize that our vanishingly short lives will soon pass, we may conclude that our mundane activities are insignificant and that nothing we do is of any real value. Indeed, our lives are short. And our accomplishments, great and small, will quickly fade until eventually all evidence that we lived will have disappeared. So, we may be forgiven for thinking that there is little point to it all. That our lives don’t really matter.
But what is it that we want to leave behind? Large bank accounts? Buildings? Artwork? In focusing on the overt ways in which we might make a difference, we forget the subtle. We may think that delivering fliers is insignificant and makes no real difference; but is this true? Consider that the delivery of a pamphlet at just the right time may result in someone visiting a store, which may lead to a chance encounter with a sales assistant, which could result in her inspiration to take a course and change her life direction. She may end up having a significant impact on society. The flier deliverer will one day be gone and forgotten, but that is true of everyone. We will all be forgotten. However, our activities ripple through time and can make a significant difference to the world.
So, when we feel insignificant and think our lives don't matter, we must remember that we are part of a massively interconnected chain of cause and effect. Our actions don't exist in isolation. They reverberate around the world and echo through time.
[Image Credit: Olivia Silby, 2022]
