Do Hard Things

My brain is so full. It has really been one of those days when I see so clearly that what I don't know is infinitely so much larger than what I do know that I despair in ever knowing even a fraction of what I want to know.

I learned so much today but one thing that kept coming through clearly to me was that the world is really only changed or improved by those who are willing to do hard things. I live in a world where I do not have to do hard things. I am privileged and spoiled and that means that I have a great deal of responsibility and it is up to me to find hard things to do and then do them. So many of the truly hard things have been done by those who have gone before and I am a product of all of that sacrifice and I need to take great care to not take this lightly. Just as the tour guide in the crypt at St. Paul's reminded me repeatedly, "Try always to remember how these people around you contributed to who you are". William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, all of the Early Modern Theatre authors did a very hard thing. The playhouses of their day were places of radical political thought and expression. The works of these men were revolutionary and in some cases semi-illegal. This is part of the reason for the authorship struggles for at least some of the plays. Some plays were controversial enough as to be "vagabond plays". (Vagabond, broken down, means vague in your bond, in other words, nonspecific in the assignment of an author to protect said writer.)

We all need to do hard things. I NEED TO DO HARD THINGS. I find myself more than a little bit ashamed and embarrassed at how readily I have stood on the backs of so many others who have done hard things. I've been willing to enjoy the fruits of hundreds of years and generations of people who willingly did hard things. I don't know how to remedy this slothfulness quite yet (refer to my blog on slothfulness for a full understanding of why I use that word) but I am asking. I fear the answer, but I am asking.