When I was younger my family moved from a one story house to a two story house that was literally right down the street. Being a military brat it was awesome because it came with the excitement of moving to a new house without the pain of leaving a place that was becoming home. I was too young to be of any real assistance to my parents but I was definitely old enough to get into trouble.
My twin sister, my brother, and I quickly ran from room to room laying claim on the awesome empty spaces we saw knowing that our parents had the ultimate choice we still felt our claims meant something. We were young so although big empty rooms were exciting the excitement only lasted like 2.7 seconds for each room. Soon we would move on to the next room where more boxes were continually becoming small fortresses in the center of the rooms. My brother, who was usually a room or two ahead of my sister and I, yelled "this is the coolest room ever"...doubting my older brothers ability to judge coolness my sister and I took off in search of the origin of this shout. When we came into the (laundry) room we were in instant agreement with my brother as we saw the awesome display of Disney character carpet set up in hopscotch patterns all over the floor. We played a few games of hopscotch and then again heard my brother yell "we've got a balcony"...my sister and I again ran to see why this was to elicit so much excitement. Upon arrival at the aforementioned balcony we to were excited. Quickly excitement faded into boredom which my brother quickly filled with the sound of his voice again as he said to my sister "I dare you to jump!" Without missing a beat my sister then turned to be me and said "I double dog dare you!" Upon hearing these words I knew what I had to do...
As I stood on that balcony my life didn't flash before my eye and I wasn't moved to tears, but I did became vary aware of the fact that something deep inside was thinking this wasn't a good idea. Right about that time my brother yelled "GO!" and I jumped. As I got right to the point of no return I then realized that I was bare foot and that below me was concrete. Don't worry, I survived, no broken bones, but upon landing I turned to find my Father, mouth wide open, rendered speechless by the stupidity of what just happened. When his words quickly came back to him and he asked me why I jumped I simply pointed up...by the time he looked to see what I was gesturing at my brother and sister had already taken off for cover. At this point I saw my window for escape closing and took off as well.
To this day I wonder how I managed not to seriously hurt myself, but I also think a lot about what inside me allowed me to jump. Don't get me wrong it was a DUMB thing to do, but there was this childlike faith that assured me that, for some reason unknown to me at the time, I'd be okay.
Life tends to suck that childlike faith right out of us. So much so that I'm seeing my generation becoming "afraid to jump". I've witnessed many of my closest friends stand in fear at something that growing up seemed to elicit a sure yes. So many are afraid to trust, love, commit, move, speak, act, and listen.
Why have these things become so hard...I pose that it's because we're a generation that has been exposed to lies that distort all of these. From a young age we're taught that you should only trust your own opinion as right and that love is all about what you can get...this leads to only committing for short term things. All this has lead to a fear to move against the grain. We, as a generation move, speak, act, and listen to what has been sold to us from the world. Looking at the current state of our world - I know there has got to be more to life then selfish love that trust no one.
I may be a little off base, and some may even think I'm out of touch with what's going on in the world, but that's okay by me. There is a freedom that comes when love is selfless, and you take the time to stop, be still, and listen to the desires of your heart. There is freedom in moving against the current towards something more transcending then present culture. I pose that that something is eternal, you may or may not agree...but you have to ask yourself - am I afraid to jump?
No comments:
Post a Comment