“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.”
It’s a line from the Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith. It’s such a simple, yet powerful idea
Yes, it’s easier said than done. But you could say that about anything, really. Most things are easier to say than to do (although I suppose that’s not true if you have communication difficulties and the task is quite easy).
So it’s not easy to build when it feels like everything could get wiped away in an instant. But it’s also essential. Because there are no guarantees in life. There are no guarantees of life.
Life is not fair. And if you wait until life is fair to try to make the world a better place, well… your entire life will pass.
My favorite people, the ones who really inspire me, just went in and picked a corner to work on. A little tiny piece of the world they’re improving. And they just go.
Does it always go as planned? Nooooo… Lots of setbacks. Sometimes it feels like building sandcastles. Every time you think you’ve made some progress, a giant wave sweeps in and destroys it all.
Well, not all. Most of it maybe. But once I’ve had a good cry and can inspect the wreckage, I can usually see something that made it. Something to appreciate. And potentially something to use to build the next thing.
If you want to have an impact, it’s so much easier to walk along the beach, find a person who is building a sandcastle, and to kick theirs down. So much easier than to try to construct something yourself — when a giant wave or a bully might be along at any second.
But I think I’ll just keep building. Maybe not so low on the beach next time though, right?
It’s good to learn from what didn’t work.
Anyway, I know one thing for damn sure: I don’t have time for sandcastle kickers anymore.