“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
- Maximus Decimus Meridius
When I look around, the hardest thing to find is a person who cares.
I see people doing the bare minimum, value-extracting, and overtly ‘screwing over’ their fellow man to “get ahead”. But, more than this, I seen an overwhelming comfort with mediocrity that would have me believe that we have reached peak “soft men create hard times”.
Everyone wants the shortcut. Nobody wants to do the work.
Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, nobody wanna lift this heavy ass weight!
- Ronnie Coleman
“Outsource everything!” The grifting “business coach” decries.
Until there is nobody left with the knowledge to do that which was outsourced and we have to pay 10x what we previously did.
I was a real estate person in a past life, and seeing the level of corner cutting that was on new construction let alone flips was infuriating. To think that someone would spend half a million or more dollars on a home that was falling apart at “brand new” was too much - I was a bad real estate agent: I wouldn’t let people buy homes that were of this quality. Maybe we’ll tell that story one day.
I think perhaps the struggle of our age is that those that don’t want to live a mediocre existence are consistently running up against resistance from everyone else that feels mediocrity is acceptable. I get the idea of the “lowest common denominator” - and I understand averages. However, we all are made for more.
It is in all things - when you look at the programming world, you see this in droves - where so many would clock-in and out of a 9 to 5, building things that really add no value to the world, all for a paycheque. But doing things for a paycheque, especially when you hate what it is you are doing, is the definition of soul sucking. “Don’t sell out man!” Those hippies were right.
Aceepting mediocrity puts you on the highway to losing your soul.
Guess what “Artificial Intelligence” is? Democratized Mediocrity.
No, it’s actually worse: You get to pay for the privilege of being mediocre!
I have seen it in myself, the moment that I start doing things not for the glory of God and rather to “just get them done”, that is when I start to lose myself. That is when I start to “burn out”, feel tired all the time, and not look forward to the day when I wake up in the morning. I would hazard to guess that this is 85-90% of people these days.
When people talk about being okay with doing the bare minimum, they are essentially saying they are totally fine with not glorifying God. When people say they are fine with comfort, they choose a lesser good over the greatest (infinite) Good. They choose a false God and break the first commandment.
Striving for perfection in an imperfect world is how we keep our sanity and soul. In refusing to compromise or cut corners we strive toward that which is infinite perfection. There are heights that are possible in this life that are only conceivable when we stop seeking comfort, when we become uncomfortable with mediocrity.
Ora et labora. The Benedictine monks were right: Prayer and work - and how we work is how we pray.
Accept nothing less, my friend.
As always, God bless, and until next time.
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