WE START OUT PROUD

We start out proud, noble even, with high principles, higher standards and specific goals to be .... well, to be the very best us we can be. With that in mind, we want to surround ourselves with the very best too -- the best life has to offer, not necessarily always in material goods but definitely in the people with whom we associate.
We look at those ahead of us on this path with disdain. We see only that they don't seem to care, that they don't seem to strive, that they settle for less than their best and less than the best of others. Why don't they care more about how they look? Who they hang out with? The women they date? The woman they married? The work they do?
We don't see the compromises they made, in good faith and with the best of intentions, having weighed the options and the realities of life. They were like us once, looking at the world and seeing a place they could make their mark, a lasting, indelible mark that others would see and strive for. They, too, wanted to be an example to everyone around them, to the rest of their world. But even the best of them, the shining stars and the achievers, have given up some of their ideals, some of their principles, parts of their very souls, to simply get where they are, no matter where that is.
If they look back they can see the steps they made along the way. There are no huge deviations, no massive swings from one direction to another and yet clearly they have wound up far short of the mark they set, the objective that was in their sights when they first began. But just like a bullet shot through a strong crosswind, they were aimed at one target and wound up hitting someplace else entirely.
Each of those deviations, each of those small turns, came from a decision that was made with the best of intentions and the wisdom of their time and age. They weighed the pluses and minuses and chose the route that seemed best. And yet each one slowly and measurably moved them farther and farther from their once-pure goal, when what they had hoped was that it would bring them closer.
And then one day, they looked back at where they started, remembered where they had wanted to be and realized that they had missed their mark, undershot their goal. They were not where or what they wanted to be. And they could see no way to get there.
That stark reality hits like a punch to the gut, taking the air right out of the lungs. It sucks the wind from your sails and drags you down further until it is hard to keep striving, keep pushing, keep your eyes on a prize you now know will never be yours, no matter what you do.
And before you even know it, you are just going through the motions, just coasting, just riding the tide. You no longer swim against the current, no longer fight the pull of the ocean, no longer try to keep from drowning under a wave of utter mediocrity and ignominy. Like a lemming, you just follow the crowd as you all march along to the edge of the cliff, heading to a certain and closing death.
They could break away, turn back, or simply just stop where they are. But that sometimes takes an effort that is hard to summon when life, disappointment, rejection, loss of love and a lifetime of defeats, big and small, have worn out the heart, the drive, the ambition. It is difficult to behave like an individual again after decades of conforming, fitting in, trying to be part of the team.
So instead of disdaining them, these forerunners and forefathers, consider their experience, their history as a cautionary tale. That, too, could happen to you. The only question is: Will you let it? Or will you be the one to swim against the tide, to forego the compromises and to always be true to yourself in all things?