Friday, August 12, 2005

Life Isn't Supposed to Be a Crystal Stair

"Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on"

Somebody not frum recently asked me a question that went something like, "how do you wear long sleeves in the summer? I mean, isn't it hard?"

And the answer is yes, it is hard, but I don't know why we expect everything in life to be so easy. When it's hot out and you're sweating and everyone around you is wearing about a quarter of the clothing you're wearing, it's not so fun, but so what? Since when does everything have to be easy to be any good? Since when does something have to be warm and fuzzy to be spirtually uplifting? And since when does God only give us easy things to do?

Life isn't supposed to be a crystal stair and it's the challenge, the hard work we put in, the tacks and the splinters in the floor that make life meaningful in the end.

2 Comments:

At 8/12/05, 12:49 PM, Blogger Nephtuli said...

As someone who doesn't wear shorts, and normally only wears long sleeves, I can tell you that it's hot. But it's hot when one is wearing shorts and a T-shirt also. So it's a little hotter....

 
At 8/12/05, 3:00 PM, Blogger Michael said...

"No pain, no gain"

The more you're "ameil" in Torah, the more chaviv it is to you.

While learning torah and sweating through a sugya is something that we're familiar with, I think struggling for something meaningful is a concept that most non-Jews find difficult to appreciate, especially in America where so much is just given to us and where children often grow up with a sense of entitlement that our grandparents never dreamed of.

To be fair, wearing an undershirt, wool tzitzis and button-down shirts (even short sleeved) is not very 'cool' (literally and figuratively) on these 90+ degree days either, but judging by my mother, sister, and girlfriend, I'm guessing it's more difficult for girls (either that or they complain more). Looks like you've got the right attitude, keep it up!

 

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