Life Should Be Hard

​Life should be hard. I don’t mean to imply that we should suffer, but rather that we should not be floating through life sitting on our laurels. We should challenge ourselves We should always be looking for opportunities to grow, to seek new lessons that can open doors and help the world in which we live.

​I was talking with my daughter about a show she was watching. She said she liked it because it was so ridiculous. She said that she felt like the person who made the show looked like they did not even try and that was why she liked it. I suggested that she should watch something that challenged her mind and engaged her intelligence. She is a very bright individual.

I carry that conversation into a larger forum and think about many of the YouTube shows that I see kids today watching and realize that children today are captivated by laziness. I also see examples of this in their dancing and so much more. I reflect on the difference between the Floss and the Lindy. Not saying that I can do either, but the difference in complexity is amazing. Again, I say life should be hard. We should not be looking for the easy way out but rather the complexity, the intricacy that engages our hearts to grow and live full lives.

I do not wish to be miss understood. I am not for a second calling today's youth lazy. I have plenty of examples of hard work from my children. But rather, I see them as the canary of society today. The warning that we as individuals must resist laziness. I was offered an opportunity to park my family’s camper at a campground for a season, it occurred to me that this might offer two advantages. First, we would be able to camp more often because it would be easier to go camping. Second, it would be more convenient and could become a more routine activity. With further reflection, I also realized that we would lose a huge portion of what I love about camping, the exploration; the adventure. In one fell swoop, we would lose the opportunity to explore new places. We would also lose the chance to meet people from different places and the adventure of towing the camper; just for the convenience of routine.

As my family looks for campgrounds to visit, we see more of them converting large numbers of sites to seasonal sites. Another canary? These indicators of sedentary living surprise me when I reflect on the pioneering history of our ancestors. What must we do to rekindle the drive for our next westward exploration, for our next search for Mecca, for our next great quest for humanity? I am not talking about the next great google search on the Internet but rather the quest in our souls to find life and invigoration. To find purpose. To seek out opportunities.

I challenge each of us to have a hard life. In the work of life, we should find the challenges that help us to thrive, prosper and grow so that we do not suffer but flourish in the hardship that helps us explore the opportunities that fill our lives with joy and color.