Running Against the Wind

The Bob Seger song of some years ago, ‘Against the Wind,’ has in it a lyric, a truth we all sooner or later will come to know. It goes:

            I’m older now

but still runnin’ . . .

            Against the wind.  

I suppose all of us will stop for a moment or two now and then, if we can, and just drift, or at least stop running and try to hold our place where we are.  But we quickly find we can’t for long and if we do it at all it might be to our disadvantage.

            The years rolled slowly past //

            And I guess I lost my way.

            There were oh so many roads—

            I was living to run and running to live

            Never worried about paying or even how much I owed….

We stop because we get tired or we do it by design to regain our strength or our moorings or to refocus on our goal  or to set a new goal.  Upon reflection we come to realize, as the song earlier says, no matter what we do, if we hope to have a successful life we ultimately must ‘keep on runnin’.

Indeed, as we get older we find, or should find, that ‘holding our place’ does not really work and getting further in debt is not the solution.  We start to fall back.  We, or someone, will eventually have to pay our debts.  Gravity or entropy does not sleep and all debts must be repaid; consequences for our actions or inactions will always come due if we stop ‘runnin’ against the wind.

Those drifter’s days are past me now.

            I’ve got so much more to think about.

            Deadlines and commitments--

            What to leave in, what to leave out. 

It sounds onerous, but it is not. 

Yes, the notion of ordering the activities or resources or commitments of our lives against the omnipresent ‘wind’ forces us to make some decisions as to ‘what to leave in, what to leave out.’  We must put our time, talents, and resources into that which matters most to us.  We must make some value judgments and take stock of where we really want to go.  And some things must be left out. 

Indeed, if we stop to think about it, a kite or a 747 is launched against the wind.  To get off the ground, though, these aircraft must not be too heavy; they must not carry too much baggage.  Wind facilitates lift off and gives the pilot more control.  But it also can be our enemy and wear us down if we don’t learn how to reduce the friction or drag and like the sailor, to ‘tack’ into it or use it to our advantage. 

So, this leads us back to what I originally going to title this piece—Priorities.  

Setting priorities—timing—balance—goal setting, calendaring, making value judgments against eternal standards and principles—these are some of the prime movers of a successful life. Wind, even resistance can be our friend.  There must needs be an opposition in all things.  But first things must be of first priority. 

What to leave in, what to leave out?  Depends on where you want to go.