What You Gonna Do With It?

"From the time the fertile egg is laid, the chances of hatching depend on the care given by those who become responsible for it."

Eggs and hatching? What does this have to do with anything? Well, since this blog may be new to you, I'll simply say that one of the things in life that keenly interest me is the raising of chickens. While perhaps odd to some, in this modern, factory-farm age, I find there are still many lessons to be learned in the old-fashioned chicken yard.

While reading an older text on the matter of hatching eggs for breeding stock, I ran across the above passage. The more I read it, the more I realized how pertinent it is to each of us. This is all the more so to those who are not content to merely take up space, but who would DO something meaningful in life.

So, what can we learn from the fertile egg, from the chick and those responsible for it?

In this country and indeed in most of the world, we are each born into the means to do something great. Laid before you at your birth is a vast system designed to educate you, raise you to adulthood and make you into something. All over the globe, the cultures of man are biased toward individual accomplishment. From the tents of Berber herdsmen in Morocco to the Social Welfare Systems of the world's propeserous countries, the whole of mankind demands that you "do something with yourself."

Poverty or lack of opportunity is no excuse for doing nothing. Oh sure, it is easy to say society or the government or whatever scapegoat you chose is against you. But it is expected that you pull yourself up from what ever ignoble beginnings you started with and rise according to your place and cultural mores. History is full of people who have, you know, so what's your excuse?
No amount of wealth or privilige is an excuse for doing simply nothing, either. Just because you have everything you want, does NOT mean you can do nothing worthwhile. The world is also full of people, right now, who are rich and famous and do things to be proud of who are noteworthy for their accompishments in their own right.

Like the chick in the egg, we are all placed within our particular station in life, each to our particular purpose. We are given but one directive by those who invest in us, by those who take responsibility for us:

"GO. DO. BECOME."

There are forces which can be aligned against you, to be sure. War, starvation, disaster, poverty, disease... these all are realities of life. Some will die before they make a start, let alone get anywhere. It is like that.

But, if you are reading this, wherever you are, I suspect that such hindrances are remote from your particular station in life. Instead, I'll wager that many forces, people and systems have been aligned to ensure that you, like the chick hatched from the egg, arrives on this earth to fulfill your directive, to

"GO. DO. BECOME."

So, now that it is clear that much has happened - known and unknown to you - to give you someplace to start, the question then begs asking: "What are you Gonna Do About It?