“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead, they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others.” --The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
The photo above shows Bengals players on the bench just after the AFC playoff game where Joseph Ossai had just made the last offensive play and damning error which resulted in a final winning kick by the Kansas City Chiefs. Only one of his teammates, Cam Sample, took the trouble to console his teammate. In fact, one teammate in particular shouted him into the locker room!
I remember a similar game ending play in the outfield during one of our company softball games years ago. He had let a line drive to left field go under his mitt, allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth. As we were returning to the sidelines, the player became inconsolable at his final flub. We all as a team kept reminding him that we all had plenty of chances to assure that the game didn’t come down to that last play as we supported him.
The good news is that the Bengals coach reiterated our reaction in the post-game press room. And his teammate who had so callously responded in the heat of the loss, apologized for his lack of compassion. We have lots of free will choices in life—we can opt to kick vulnerable people when they’re down or we can pick them up when they fall.
We’re all playing this giant board game of life together as
we struggle to make it home. As we
stumble along the way, it’s reaffirming when others give us a boost. And it’s not about who finishes first, but
who finishes together!
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