Musings on whether the effort is worth it when sometimes nothing is better than all the other options.
In a world like ours, blue skies shine so brightly that they take first place in the contest for the most beautiful weather. Cloudy skies must give way to their empty equivalent. If people value “less” more, why bother to make it the best it can be?
A little boy walks on the bumpy forest path. His surroundings are much larger than he is and the boulders on the road come up to his knees. Yet he keeps going until he reaches the end of the forest. He finds himself at the top of the biggest rock yet and looks out over the forest that is now smaller than he is.
From behind, his older sister runs towards him. Looking at her booming smile, he assumes the road was easy for her. His own smile is strained, but not because of the effort it took him to reach the viewpoint. He looks ahead and thinks of the long way he still has to go. As soon as he sets his foot on the next path that leads to an even higher viewpoint, he will lose his momentary sense of peace and accomplishment.
His sister will not accompany him on this road. She will take the same road back to where her friends are waiting for her. When she looks at the empty blue sky, she is satisfied. The boy loves the clouds in all shapes. He likes to guess the meaning when he lies with his back on the grass staring at the sky. When he does, his sister runs in circles around him. Jumps over him, sending loose blades of grass up his nose, irritating his airways. When he calls out to her that she needs to go somewhere else, she looks at him uncomprehendingly as if she can’t think of any other place to be. They must live together under the same sky, which is sometimes blue and sometimes gray. Just as it is when you look up today.
I want to convey this message to you. On this day, today, even if the sky is gray and the road is long: your sister is right, this is where you belong. Under the clear blue sky that pleases your sister and her friends, who live their lives effortlessly, you stare aimlessly at the sky, waiting for the clouds to show you something high in the sky that has been at eye level all along.
