Cosmic Reality

One of my favorite movies has to be “The Rookie” with Dennis Quaid playing the part of Jim Morris, the real-life west Texas high school science teacher who took a shot at trying out for major league baseball well past his prime. The essential theme of the story is that it is never too late to pursue dreams. Just before he was called up from the minors and he was feeling dejected and more than a little homesick, he remembered what his father had told him: it’s ok to dream about what you want to do until it’s time to do what you are meant to do. By the time he had reached a decision to stop “playing” baseball, go home, and resume teaching science and coaching high school baseball, he was called up to the major leagues.

There is nothing wrong with having dreams. These are a huge part of what makes getting out of bed every morning worth the effort. There is also nothing wrong with wanting more out of life than whatever is set before us, but there is something desperately wrong with being so dissatisfied with life that we spin ourselves off into several different directions in efforts to find that happy place where all our dreams might come true and in so doing actually neglecting those things that do matter more than anything else. There are still bills to be paid and children to be raised and educated. And in a society in which divorce has become the “easy” option as a means by which we try to “find ourselves”, there is effort required to be put into one’s marriage and working on maintaining the relationship rather than neglect it to the point of disrepair.

Whether one is meant to do something as part of some cosmic destiny or is only a matter of having entered into certain commitments, the first obligations remain. There is still such a thing as “first things first”. Things get harder as we get older especially if we become dissatisfied with the way things are and try to think back on where we might have “missed the boat”. We question the wisdom of certain decisions while failing to realize that even the mistakes made in youthful haste are part and parcel of who we have become. Life is what it is, but there is also the element that life can be what we choose for it to be.

For grown-ups, some things will have to wait. We are owed nothing and are guaranteed even less than that, but we must find the happy place in our hearts when we can finally become at least content with what life has given us. It has everything to do with being satisfied that we are blessed even when we think we are cursed.