Sunday Reflection: In Celebration of All Slain Hope and Lost Causes!

What do we celebrate?

For the most part, we celebrate heroic acts, epic love affairs, great victories, overcoming the insurmountable and coming out on top of the pile even when the odds are stacked against us.

Nothing wrong with that!

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But what do we forget?

What happens to all those who reached for the proverbial brass ring, and came up just a whisker short?



What happens to those who worked their fingers to the bone, did everything right, and still didn't succeed?

What happens to those who give their life to building a business only to have it taken over by some multinational, leaving them with empty pockets and shattered dreams?

What happens to those who dedicate their life to doing the right thing and not being a shitty person, only to to dwell in unappreciated obscurity till they quietly wither away?

What happens to those who finally find the great love of their lives... only to have him/her die in a car accident, three months later?

As the old truism goes ”nobody remembers who finished second.”

When I was a kid, I didn't have any ”heroes.” And, to be honest, I was really more interested in the ”forgotten” then in the alleged stars of the show.

So what's my point here? The world is filled with many kinds of excellence, kindness, epic love, great endeavors, all of which pass by unnoticed and unappreciated.

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Think about it: If you finish second in an Olympic event you're no slouch are you? And yet you're likely to be forgotten. It's a strange (and slightly sad) dichotomy how we celebrate winners but not just excellence.

Hollywood shows us stories of heroes who go on great quests and come home and marry the Princess. But Hollywood conveniently overlooks the often true realities where the hero gets a few scars along the way and the Princess instead says ”Hey, I don't want you anymore because you're not pretty enough with those scars on your face,” or "Oh sorry, I married your friend Frank, instead!"



Something is missing from the equation. From my experience, at least, evil does in fact often vanquish good. And the hero doesn't get to marry the Princess. And the clever person with the perfect business idea who executes it perfectly doesn't necessarily succeed.

It took me many years to realize that when the world around me would comment on the fact that I seem to have an undertone of sadness in my temperament, it was exactly because of this; because my focus tended to be less on the public heroes then it was on the vast number who struggle valiantly in silence and yet get nowhere.

I concede that maybe we need so called heroes in order to have something "shiny" to strive for, something to look up to. And I'm OK with that, really. But let us also take a moment to remember the many who did exceptional things, who loved without boundaries, who always did their best... but still came up short. It happens all the time... "happy endings" aren't necessarily the reality of how life works out.

And so, this post represents a symbolic moment of silence in celebration all slain hope and lost causes.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your Sunday!

How about YOU? Can you think of situations in which excellence or "goodness" prevailed, yet was forgotten because a different outcome was chosen? Have you experienced such situations, yourself? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210516 13:20 PDT

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Beautiful words. Words stored in the blockchain forever. Thanks!!!

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I've thought about at times, how many millions of regular people have lived, loved and died since humanity began and how most left nothing behind that shows they were ever existed. (or maybe just a census name, stored in some dusty book somewhere) That's the way it is for the vast majority of our lives and still you know, there were many wonderful stories we'll never see or hear, but they were there all the same.

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Reminds me a bit of something one of my spiritual Teachers once observed: when you look around you, every single person you can see will most likely be dead in a 100 years from now, and most of them will be completely forgotten.

We all have our personal stories and dramas that play, but on the greater scale of life they don't amount to very much... so it's up to us to derive whatever meaning we can from them, while we can!

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Great thoughts. I tend to favor the less perfect things and find that even the most "happy" events usually are bittersweet depending on the perspective.

FWIW this post reminds me of a tune Alan Jackson did called "Here In The Real World".

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I get that. I've just never been very attracted to the extremely "shiny" in life, nor to bein in any sort of limelight.

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I am totally with @denmarkguy as I believe those people we celebrate may very well not deserve the recognition. In the end we do what we do for a sense of self-satisfaction, for a personal well being and simply for kindness etc. Good things come to who do good.

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Agreed. And one of the important ideal in my life has long been that people need to "do good" for the reason that it is doing good, not because they are looking to get recognition for their good deeds. But I suppose there are those who are almost "addicted" to the limelight.

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