Day 201: If I won the lottery...

I think we all fantasize about winning the lotto.  Paying off debt, setting up our kids and family for life, traveling the world.  But I guess if I'm going to be honest with myself, what I would really want can't be purchased with the winning lotto ticket, and that's harmony. 

"Geez, John, why don't you just ask for world peace?"  Well hold on.  I'm just looking for harmony in my own life.  But let's make sure we know what we're talking about.  Harmony doesn't mean a lack of struggle.  Nor does it mean living in unbridled euphoria.  It's really a balance between and a coexistence of the two.  One must enable and depend on the other.   Take running, for example.  You wonder what they mean by "runner's high"?  Well, it's really the perfect balance between the physical struggle of your body to run and the joy and gratification of the mind and spirit that comes from knowing you can run.  I would argue that there's even harmony in scooping up dog poop.  Yeah, it can be a pretty nasty task cleaning up after my dogs but that is just the "struggle" part that goes along with the joy of actually having dogs. Don't tell my wife I said that.  I like to put on a show about what a hassle it is to scoop dog crap. 

When there's more of one than the other, life is no longer harmonious.  I bet most of you will only think of examples of when your job became too difficult or that relationship became hurtful.  But life certainly gets out of balance when there's too much of a good thing.  Statistics show that many lotto winners actually go bankrupt within several years.  What about those folks that are driven by physical gratification - parties, drugs, alcohol, sex.  I think the problem we have in our western society is that we've been conditioned over the generations to avoid struggle.  We've somehow convinced ourselves that struggle is bad while "greed is good".  Well, Mr. Gecko, greed is NOT good.  You can't take without giving.  I'm not saying we need to start flogging ourselves or constantly put ourselves in harm's way.  But the gratification and joy we seek will only come when we've put forth our energies and committed ourselves  to achieve.  Folks, I'm here to tell you there's no such thing as a free lunch.  The acquisition of joy without struggle is the prelude to life spinning out of control.   

So even though I may complain a bit about my job and responsibilities, it's those struggles that provide the meaning and depth to the joys I also experience.  The exhilaration of sitting atop a Colorado 14er won't exist without the struggle it takes to actually get to the top. So here's to joy and struggle.  Here's to balance and harmony.