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“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
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Leonardo da Vinci
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So.
I constantly remind myself that Life is a grind.
This may sound wacky because I tend to believe most people, I included, get a little tired of the day-to-day shit Life throws at you. And that absolutely feels like a grind. So much so that … well … people like me could start believing that it is a grind.
But.
Think about this.
People like me … ones who have been fortunate enough to taste flight … always need to be aware that our ‘grind’ not only doesn’t match the majority of people’s grind.
Our version of it really isn’t a ‘grind’ in the larger scheme of things.
For most people there is a version of grind I can only imagine. While they may only glimpse flight … I only glimpse grind.
People like me should think about this … be aware of this … and stop fooling ourselves into believing our grind is the same as the majority’s grind.
People like me … ones who have been fortunate enough to taste flight … always need to be aware of our sometimes flippant view of Life & its challenges.
For most people ambition takes a back seat to sitting in the ‘survival’ driver seat … with moments of rest stops with beautiful views.
People like me … ones who have been fortunate enough to taste flight … always need to be aware of our sometimes naïve point of view that everyone has opportunities and the ability to attain and ‘get’ more.
For most people … say 90+% … where they begin, socioeconomically, they end.
Yup. Let’s state it this way … 95% of people will end where they begin. Something to ponder.
People like me … ones who have been fortunate enough to … well … taste flight … always need to take a step back and remind ourselves that we are the few and fortunate.
For most people life is a grind with glimpses of flight.
The majority really doesn’t taste it … simply glimpse it.
In the end.
Let me be clear.
Nothing tastes like flight.
Once you have tasted it you will … well … have been there and will always long to return.
People like me … ones who have been fortunate enough to taste flight … always need to find opportunities to let others taste it rather than always seek first & foremost to ‘return ourselves.’
Practically speaking that may be the hardest lesson to apply in practice … and attitude & behavior to assume.
Yet.
Assume it we must.
For I believe the more we enable more people to taste flight … the more collectively, societally & culturally, we will soar.
I know, individually, I long for the return to flight.
Constantly.
At the same time … I know I long for others to know the taste of flight.
Constantly.
I can only hope that I am a good enough man in the end to choose to give someone else the opportunities above my own return.
I once called this finding the ‘nobler version of I.’
People like me … who have been fortunate enough to taste flight … always need to seek the ‘nobler version of I.’
For everyone should taste flight.
Once tasted … you never walk on earth the same.