It was 1974, I was a senior in high school and ready to graduate. Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal, “Peace with honor” was the government’s spin to explain that the U.S. lost the war in Viet Nam, and if you didn’t sit in a three hour line in your car, you didn’t get gasoline that day.
Life — it is what it is, just accept it, son. Many who accepted that answer lived a mere shadow of a life thereafter.Our answer for everything was “Just take it as it comes. Whatever will be will be.” At seventeen, it was an acknowledgement that we couldn’t change the world so we just had to accept whatever happened as inevitable and roll with it. Several millions of young people and their parents accepted this as “Just the way it is,” to the relief of the government, the corporate chiefs and those who controlled the economy, country and lives of the people themselves. It was Un-American to protest, rebel, demonstrate or dissent. After all, who wanted to be labeled as a dirty, hippie, commie bastard? Life — it is what it is, just accept it, son. Many who accepted that answer lived a mere shadow of a life thereafter.
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It was the worst advice anyone could have given me, or anyone else for that matter. For the rest of our lives we were expected to live life out of a box. A box called a house, a box called a car, another box called a work cubicle, a box called a computer we hammer away at, a box called lunch we eat out of. Drive home in your box, watch the box, and go to sleep. Human drones.
If you are satisfied just taking what life gives you, then you are accepting the scraps, the leftovers, the dregs of those who went out there and took from life everything that could be garnered from their dreams and passion for living. The imaginative, the creative, the dreamers, and those who couldn’t imagine letting the last flap on the box slam shut on their heads, broke out and ran for something that few ever permit for themselves — dreams! Even though failures will happen inevitably, and success is never guaranteed. We know that every championship game was won by teams that lost plenty of times but kept their goals in focus. Nobody ever applauded the ordinary, the run-of-the-mills, the rank and file humans that just “took it as it came.” How is that living?
Life doesn’t give you anything. If you are satisfied just taking what life gives you, then you are accepting the scraps, the leftovers, the dregs of those who went out there and took from life everything that could be garnered from their dreams and passion for living. Those who created opportunities, made decisions for their lives, and accepted nothing less than success regardless of how many times they failed.
People who stretched their comfort zones beyond recognition and enjoyed life as it was supposed to be lived. Not with the permission of the corporate masters, not with the nod of approval from those who controlled every when, where, how or what they could be in their own lives. Few ever do it. It takes courage. It requires taking a risk in life and accepting that the outcomes are up to those who create their own solutions to every obstacle and turn every stumbling block into a stepping stone. These are the ones who are fully alive and it is because of them that today we fly across a country in just a few hours instead of six months. Those dreamers are the reason we have all of the world’s public information on a laptop. Or read by the light of lamps instead of candles. Those dreamers turned those dreams into realities and we are all better off because of them.
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“Taking as it comes to you, whatever will be will be” is a plan to fail, to live a mediocre life that you will curse at every thought of those who could not accept a shadow of a life as the real thing. The best part is that you don’t have to take anything away from anyone else to have the life of your dreams. It is your dream, no one else’s. It is your vision exclusively. A thousand people without a dream will try to discourage you from it. Dream on. A thousand people will tell you that you will fail, go broke, lose your security, your friends, your credibility. Dream on. Those who allow themselves a mere scant life are confident and certain about one thing and one thing only: how to live on someone else’s terms and conditions.
I endured every mockery, every chuckle at my expense, every confident and well-meaning piece of advice that told me to “quit while I was ahead.”There is no better feeling in life than to beat the odds, challenge the fates and win, crush every obstacle and get back up after a setback. I know. I did it. I endured every mockery, every chuckle at my expense, every confident and well-meaning piece of advice that told me to “quit while I was ahead.” With nothing more than a tenacity, compassion in action, and a focus that lead me into an uncertain future, Changes for New Hope, a non-profit organization, was created, developed and succeeded in bringing a better life to more than two thousand children living in destitution in the Peruvian Andes. That was my dream, my vision. My dream has become my reality.
Live your dreams my friends. Do not let any obstacle, anything or anyone tell you that it is better to just “Take it as it comes, Whatever will be will be”. Failure because you never tried is the most painful experience I could ever imagine. You deserve better than that, don’t you?
-~~ Jim Killon