Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Be a Life Person

Are you a “life” person?

Everyone remembers being in high school and taking a subject they just didn't get. whether it was math, science, history, or English, you hit a wall every single time. at my high school, at least, and maybe yours, too, there arose a convenient fiction to serve as an explanation: some people are just “math people.” they walked into Algebra II and everything clicked. the clouds parted, the angels sang, x was found and graphs were plotted like nobody’s business- meanwhile, the rest of us dully wandered in problem purgatory, burdened with a sinking feeling that our futures rested on a skill that some of us had and some of us didn't.

Others, like me, were history and English people. We made similes our servants, mastered our metaphors, and panned for themes and motifs in everything: books, commercials, and cereal boxes. No text was too obscure; no historical date too meaningless- while all the “math people,” starving for something concrete and more frustrated each day, finally asked: “why are we reading so much into this?! The author didn’t mean all that, or she would have just said it!” or “Who cares who invaded who? It was a thousand years ago!”

Initially, when we heard that magic phrase- “oh, she’s just a math person”- it was a great relief. We weren’t stupid, or lazy, or rebellious- we had just lost an arbitrary genetic lottery that had given some of us special powers and left the rest to fend for themselves. Our anger shifted to the authorities. “Why are ‘they’ making math people do history? Can’t ‘they’ see that ‘they’re’ wasting everyone’s time?”

Human nature is to set up categories, and decide who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out.’ Shrinks call it “Heuristics-” google it if you have an hour to kill- and it’s a powerful force. Sometimes this is based on natural abilities, or skin color, or whatever ‘beauty’ happens to mean this decade, but whatever the arbitrary criterion, it shifts responsibility from people, who make choices, to groups, systems, and the dreaded “they.”

Winning a genetic lottery is nice, as is being born in certain places into certain circumstances. But the temptation to throw in the towel and give in to bitterness because “they” are out to get us- no matter who “they” are- must be resisted with all of our might.

Which of us, when we were first born, were “word” people? We bubbled and gurgled and sputtered for months before we even managed syllables, much less words. But now we speak English, which is among the most difficult languages to learn. Or which of us were “walking” people? Toddlers didn’t earn their name for being steady on their feet. But now most of us hop, skip, and jump without a second thought. Eating, drinking, bathing- I could go on. But the point is that every one of us already has a rather impressive track record of overcoming obstacles and mastering difficult tasks, simply by remaining alive.

I wasn't born yet when President Kennedy made his great speech announcing the program to put a man on the moon, but thanks to the internet I got to hear something incredible: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

So to everyone who’s not a ‘health’ person, or a ‘book’ person, or a ‘rich’ person, or a ‘leadership’ person, or a ‘Jesus’ person, I say be a ‘life’ person. Do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Remember all the hard things you've already done, and let those memories give you strength. “Do not ask what the world needs,” writes O.S. Marsden. “Ask what makes you come alive, and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”